Prankster's Delight
by Firefly Alchemist
Summary: Pretty much the untold prequel of Harry Potter! How Lily ended up falling in love with the person she least suspected. ***Currently being rewritten****
1. Chapter 1

**A/N Hey all! Recently i've been getting back into Harry Potter which made me want to take another look at this fanfic. I never finished it, but I had a lot of fun writing it. Sadly, however, I wrote it in seventh grade, and predictably my thirteen-year-old writing leaves much to be desired. I honestly can hardly stand to read back over it, but I decided to give it a shot anyway. **

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><p>"Damn it, Wormtail, what did you do this time?" asked a very annoyed James Potter, as his friend Peter blew up the potion that they were trying to brew. "Madam Pince is going to have our heads!"<p>

Peter's cheeks turned pink, he looked down at his hands which were covered with a smoking, yellow liquid.

"Give him a break, Prongs; you're not exactly a potions master yourself. And besides, you're the one who insisted we do this in the library!" Remus Lupin said, looking over the top of the Daily Prophet, having stubbornly refused to take part in what he had dubbed James and Sirius' latest death wish.

Sirius Black snickered behind His hand. "Come now Moony, we can't blame Prongs; he has a serious medical condition that affects his brain: Evans-obsession. He can't be expected to make good decisions with his… disability." He sighed dramatically. "Yes! He needs to be wherever Lily Evans is, even if that means trying to brew a complicated potion while simultaneously catching glimpses of his love reading through the shelves of books!" Sirius ended the speech with a theatrical sweep of his arms and a very smug look.

Peter laughed, but James however, was not impressed. "Evans-obsession? Really, Padfoot? I'm more creative in my sleep. Have I taught you nothing?"

"You teach me? You know damn well I'm the one who comes up with all our pranks!" Sirius retorted.

"As if! I-"

Remus interrupted James as he saw the looming figure of Madam Pince approaching. "As much as I'd love to hear the end of this riveting debate, I suggest that we avoid Madam Pince's inevitable wrath for brewing a shrinking potion that, as Peter was so kind to prove, is prone to exploding right in the middle of the magical creatures section of her library!"

Sirius sighed. "If you insist, Mr. Moony."

With that, the four troublemakers gathered up all of their supplies and sprinted around the corner, where they crashed into a certain redhead. A pile of entangled limbs and robes collapsed to the floor, and it took them a moment to un-sort themselves.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" Lily Evans said, brushing off her robes. She offered a hand to the boys still on the floor, but her friendly green eyes hardened as she saw whom exactly she'd walked into. She sighed. "I shouldn't be surprised. There's an explosion in the library of course the Marauders would be behind it."

"At your service milady," Sirius said, bowing his head towards the redhead's angry face, grin on his. He sobered slightly with the withering look she sent back.

"Go out with me?" James asked weakly from the floor where he had fallen, Remus reaching down to help him up.

"You, James Potter, are an arrogant-fatheaded toerag who thinks that he can date any girl in this school!"

"So we've heard." Sirius laughed. He got to his feet and turned to James. "Better luck next time, mate!"

"Really!" Lily said, irritation rolling off her tongue and seeping into her words. "Break is in two days and you still manage to get yourselves into trouble before the holidays! Unbelievable!"

"Well we weren't exactly trying," Remus said. He stepped back as the redhead turned her wrath on him.

"And you, Remus! I expect this of the rest of them, but you're a prefect! You should know better!"

Sirius sighed. "Spit it out Evans; how many detentions do we have?"

"Well, considering the fact that you were brewing a potion in the library," she said, gesturing to the caldron tucked under Peter's arm. "That exploded, and you're going to be out past curfew in," she paused to check her watch. "Oh, thirty seconds, I'd say-"

"You boys! You- you- vandals! You ruined an entire section of books!" Madam Pince, who had finally caught up with them, sputtered. "Do you have any idea how much work it will be to fix all of them? Not to mention cleaning up the mess! It'll take hours!" She was practically spitting in her consternation.

Lily smirked. "I think I'll leave you four in the capable hands of Madam Pince." The boys looked at her with pleading eyes. Her smirk widened, and she walked back to her table and gathered up her books.

_I really hope looks can't kill,_ was James could think as he gazed into Madam Pince's angry face.

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><p>On their way back to the Gryffindor common room, after having received eight detentions each, all of which were to be spent cleaning the Magical Creatures section of the library and mending all the books that had been damaged in the explosion under the watchful eye of Madam Pince, with absolutely no magic, the Marauder's conversation (as it so often did) turned to James' love life.<p>

"Why couldn't you have fallen in love with a girl who isn't evil, Prongs?" Sirius asked.

"She's a prefect! She was just doing her job!" James stated defensively.

"Yeah," laughed Sirius. "Like to see you say that the next time old Snivelly catches us up to something!"

"Are you planning on getting caught then, mate?" Remus asked

"Not at all, not at all."

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><p>Lily was practically fuming as she wandered the hallways, heading in the vague direction of the Gryffindor common room. <em>Why are they so annoying? If they have to plan pranks, why do they have to do it in the library? They know about every secret passage in the school, why the damn library? <em>She knew why. _Why does James Potter have to be such an arse? Haven't I made it clear that I'm in no way interested in him? _She was still lost in thought when she walked into someone for the second time that day. If possible, this person was even more unwelcome than the first.

"Lily?" He was slightly hunched, his shoulders drooped and hands in his robe pockets. His long hair hung loose around his chin, and there was a gleam from his chest as a prefect badge caught the light from the torches.

"Sev?" she asked, then berated herself internally. _He is not your friend!_ She thought, looking at the Slytherin in front of her. _He hasn't been your friend for almost a year! _"Snape." She corrected herself coolly. Lily turned and started to walk away, but froze as she felt him lay a hand on her shoulder.

"Lily wait."

"Get off me Snivellus!" she cried savagely, shrugging out of his grasp. She instantly regretted her words and had to bite back the apology that involuntarily rose to her lips. It was cruel, and she knew it, but some part of her was brutally glad as she saw the horrified expression on his face. Good. Maybe now he might know how she felt.

Snape withdrew his hand. He swallowed, but valiantly continued. "Lily I've told you I'm sorry! I didn't mean to call you… that… that word; it just sort of-"

"Slipped out?" She choked on a laugh. "We've been over this Snape. You've made your choice and I've made mine. Now please, just leave me alone." Her voice was tired, and she turned away from him before continuing. "You won't want your friends to see you consorting with a 'filthy little mudblood.'"

Snape cringed. "Don't call yourself that!" he said forcefully.

Lily looked back at him, incredulous. "Yeah, I guess you've got that covered."

Snape took a step forward. "I've told you I'm sorry a thousand times, Lily, and if you want, I'll do it a thousand more! Just give me a chance-"

"You don't get, do you?" Lily asked, turning to face him, abruptly aware of hot anger dripping through her veins. "It's not that you called me mudblood, it's who you are! Who you've become!"

Snape straightened and met her eyes, long nose quivering, but he refused to look away. "I never meant to hurt you, you've got to believe me."

Lily gazed up at the cracked stone of the ceiling. "Yeah, I do, Sev, and that's the problem. You never meant to hurt me, but you were completely fine with hexing Augustine Bowman with Mulciber last month."

His forehead wrinkled. "What's she got to do with this?"

"And Hannah Gap a few weeks earlier, and Elijah Copeland before that," Lily continued. "I know what you and your friends do in your spare time," she said, glaring at the taken aback expression on his face. "I guess that _those_ mudbloods just didn't deserve your protection."

"Lily-"

"You-Know-Who doesn't believe in that sort of discrimination, Sev," she said sarcastically. "He believes in persecuting the entire muggleborn population, not in making exceptions for childhood friends. You better get your act together if you plan on joining up after we finish school. We Wouldn't want the other Death Eaters to discover your dirty little secret, now would we?" she started to walk away, but Snape's hand darted out and grabbed her wrist before she could take a step.

"None of that was serious, we were just joking around!" he said desperately.

"Joking around? For Merlin's sake, Sev is this all a game to you? Hannah was in the hospital wing for two weeks! Even James Potter never did anything like that!"

Perhaps it was cruel to mention James, but Lily would be lying if she said she didn't feel a rush of pleasure at Snape's stricken expression.

He started to say something, but was interrupted before he began.

"Are you giving Evans trouble Snivellus? A cold voice asked.

As if he had been summoned at the mention of his name, James Potter stood a few feet behind Snape, leaning against the corridor wall, hands in pockets and an easy smirk on his face. Despite herself, Lily noticed that his hazel eyes caught the light of the torches through his lopsided glasses, giving them a soft brown look. Like liquid gold.

For a moment, she wondered if he had been eavesdropping on their conversation, but a quick glance around them told her that that was impossible; there was no where to hide. She supposed that like the multitude of other things that came so easily to him, that James Potter simply had impeccable timing.

"Potter!" Snape said angrily. "Keep your arrogant self in your own business. Don't you have a fan club who'll be wondering where you are?" Based on the surprise in his voice, Lily assumed that he hadn't heard the Marauder approach either.

Snape meant it as an insult, but James shrugged it off with a small smile. "They can wait, Snivelly," he said. Turning to Lily he asked, "Would you like me to escort you back to the common room?" and stretched out his hand.

Lily looked from Potter to Snape, quite possibly the two people she hated the most in the school. The bully or the Death Eater? She started to turn away from both of them, but at the last moment, she grabbed James' hand. She looked into Snape's face, boldly confronting the betrayed expression that she knew she'd find there. "Don't call me Lily." With that, she turned and headed towards the portrait of the fat lady, practically dragging James along as she went_._

As soon as they got to the common room, Lily dropped his hand as if it had bitten her.

She started to turn away, but James called "Evans," and she looked back at him. "Don't I even get a kiss for saving you from that slimy git?" he asked with a smile and a wink.

Lily sighed."You really are hopeless aren't you?" _I should've just walked away._

"Dunno. How 'bout you go out with me, and I'll tell you?"

Lily sighed again and turned, but she found a small smile had tickled its way across her lips.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N sorry I didn't start with a note last chapter, I'm still figuring out how to use this. (This is my first story!) What you missed was nothing big, I just going to tell you to please read and review! Now, I know that I hate long author's notes, so without further ado, I present to you, the second chapter in my amazing story! Before I leave, I'd like to thank Doctor Brittana Banana Who for the amazingly nice review! (I'm a Doctor Who fan too!)

Lily walked up the stairs to the sixth year girls' dormitory in a daze. She couldn't believe what had just happened. She realized with a jolt, that that had been the first conversation that she had had with Severus since he had threatened to spend the night in the hallway outside the portrait of the fat lady last year. When she walked in, her best friend Alice, bounded up to greet her.

"Lily? Where've you been?" She asked anxiously. "You were supposed to be back half an hour ago!"

Lily couldn't help but to smile. Typical Alice; worried because she was missing for 30 minutes. Lily supposed that her friend would be a good mother someday, but it could get annoying.

"Well?" Alice asked again, her round and friendly features looked stern.

This time, Lily couldn't help herself; she laughed. Seeing her best friend who was barely five feet tall (though she insisted she was five two,) standing erect, with her hands on her hips like Lily was a four year old who had been bad and needed a turn in the 'time out chair,' was too much. Lily let all the tension from the last ten minutes wash away.

Alice tried to keep her straight face and motherly pose, but soon she too had collapsed in a fit of giggles. The two friends laughed together until, one of the other girls, Dorcas Meadowes, threw a pillow at them.

"OY! Some of us are trying to sleep here!" She yelled at them.

Dorcas's best friend, Mary Dearborn, poked her head around the velvet curtains that surrounded the four-poster bed. "Lily Evans, you ought to be ashamed of yourself! You are a prefect and here you are waking up good people who are just trying to get a good night's sleep so they won't fall asleep in History of Magic tomorrow!"

"Oh, please!" Lily retorted. "If you were sleeping I'll marry James Potter!"

The other girls laughed at this, but Lily froze. She hadn't been thinking about what she was saying and it had just slipped out. She felt her back stiffen as the conversation with Potter and Snape was once again placed on her shoulders. She suddenly felt that she was holding back tears. She realized that up until that moment she had always half hoped that there was some way that she and Severus could still be friends, but when he had confronted her, she had known that there was no possible way that that could happen. "I'm tired," Lily gave a fake yawn. "I'm going to bed." She got up, and went to change out of her robes.

Dorcas and Mary went back to bed, but Alice stayed up and watched Lily leave. As her chocolate brown eyes caught sight of Lily's red face, she knew that something was wrong. "Lily, wait," she called, but Lily was already gone.

James smiled as he reentered the sixth year boys' dormitory. Lily had almost said yes! Well, not _almost_ exactly, but she had come closer than she ever had before. He thought. He could never tell with that girl; one minute she seemed to like him, like when she had taken his hand, but others she just seemed to hate him. (Admittedly there were a lot more of the second types of moments, but the first type was not unheard of.)

"Hey Prongs! Where've you been?" Remus asked James the same question that Alice had asked Lily.

"Around."

"Around? Stalking Lily is more like it!" Frank Longbottom laughed. He was the only sixth year Gryffindor boy who was not a marauder. He most likely would've been one, but he was dating Alice, and they never left each other's side.

"Well I did run into Evans a matter of fact," James retorted.

"Yeah, 'ran into her,'" Peter laughed from his bed.

"Okay, so maybe meeting in the corridor wasn't a complete accident," James said. "But I saved her."

"From what?" Sirius asked, getting interested in the discussion.

"From a conversation with our friend Snivellus!" James answered, a grave look on his face.

"Snape?" asked Peter.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Yes, Peter. Snivellus is Snape. Sheesh... you'd think he'd have caught on by now."

Peter blushed sheepishly and shook it off. The other boys in the room laughed.

"So what happened?" Remus asked impatiently.

"Jeez Moony, keep your pants on! I'll tell you. So I was walking down the hallway when I heard Evan's and Snivelly's voices. I ducked behind a suit of armor to listen." James gave Frank a quick glance, and then looked down at a bulge in his robe pocket. The three marauders nodded their heads to show that they understood. James had used his father's invisibility cloak to sneak up on the two fighters. "Anyway Evans was yelling at him how they couldn't be friends because he was a death eater, blah, blah, blah, so then, I pop out and ask Snape if he's giving Evans trouble, he hurled some pretty rubbish insults at me, and I asked Evans if she wanted me to escort her to the common room and she said yes. So when we got there, I asked her out, and,"

"Wait, my magical powers are tingling! I know her answer!" Sirius said in a low mysterious voice. "Lily Evans told you that... no! She would not go on a date with the bullying toerag some call James Potter."

Peter, Remus, and Frank laughed, but James rolled his eyes, "Okay, so she didn't say yes, but she didn't say no either; she just walked away."

Sirius leaned back against a bedpost. "I don't know when you are going to give this up. She's not into you!" he said the last part as though he was talking to a small child. "Why don't you go find some other girl. A girl who likes you and doesn't treat you like your worse than Voldemort himself."

Sirius' words got a collective silence from the room. Every eye was turned to James to see how he would react.

"Easy mate. No other girl is Lily Evans." With that, James drew the curtains around his bed shut. As he rolled over trying to get to sleep, he wondered why he had stuck with Evans all these years. When people said that he could have any girl in the school, they weren't lying. Every girl but one. Maybe that was it. Maybe it was just that she was the only one who ever said no. But, he had asked her out first. Out of all the girls in the school, he had asked out Evans. His mind drifted back to the third year when it happened.

It had all started by the lake. James and the rest of the Marauders sat in the cool shade of a tree trying to decide what color the giant squid was,

"I'm telling you!" Peter said insistently. "I saw it in first year when we had to cross the lake to get to Hogwarts! It was sort of a pinkish rose color!"

Sirius sighed like they had been over this a dozen times. "Peter, there is no way on this Earth that the giant squid is pink!"

"But it is!" Peter protested. He looked to James, who was playing with a snitch he had swiped from Madam Hooch's office. He would release it and let its silky golden wings take it a few inches into the air, where his nimble fingers would snatch it once again. "What color do you think the squid is, James?" he asked.

"Don't know and frankly I don't care that much."

"How about you, Remus?" Peter inquired hopefully.

"Old Squidy?" Remus said looking up from his book. "I've run into him a couple of times as... you know. Pretty nice guy once you get to know him. He's not pink though, more of a tangerine color if you know what I mean."

Peter's eyes widened. "You've met the giant squid?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "'Course I haven't. Don't you think I've told you about it before now? Anyway I've never even left the Shrieking Shack as a werewolf!"

"The Shrieking Shack? Is that what they're calling it in Hogsmede now? You're getting quite a reputation for yourself Remus!" Sirius said with a chuckle.

Remus shuddered. "Don't remind me."

"Shhh..." James said silently running his hand through his hair.

"No one was talking," Sirius grumbled. The Marauders turned to see who had captivated James' attention. Lily Evans walked into view. She was talking with Emmeline Vance from Ravenclaw.

"Ohhh..." Peter said knowingly. "Evans." Sirius and Remus just nodded.

"OY! Evans!" James yelled. "Want to go on a date with me?"

Lily turned and looked at him incredulously. "Is this some kind of prank Potter?" she asked, looking around in case someone was about to jump out at her or something else the Marauders would find amusing.

James smirked. "Nope! This is a completely prank-free ask out!"

Lily stared at him for another second then turned away and said "No."

James' smirk vanished "What?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "She said 'no,' mate. N-O. I believe that it is used to express denial or _refusal_." Remus put extra emphases on the last word.

James turned to him angrily as Lily and Emmeline started laughing.

Sixth year James rolled over in his bed again and smiled at the thought of his first attempt to go on a date with Lily Evans.

Lily woke up early the next morning since it was the last day before going home for Christmas, and she still needed to pack all of her belongings. After she (with some help from Alice,) managed to close her trunk, they went down to breakfast.

Lily sighed as she saw Potter walk in. _Something tells me I'm in for a very long and awkward breakfast._ At least Severus was in Slytherin, so she didn't have to face him. Even so, Lily felt his black eyes burning holes in her back.

"Hello, Evans," James' voice washed over her.

_It begins. _Was all she could think. "Hello, Potter." She said coolly without looking up from her toast.

James sat down and started laughing with the Marauders. The next ten minutes passed without any embarrassing remarks from James, much to Lily's surprise.

_WHOOSH_. Hundreds of owls came swooping down to the table to deliver the post. Lily collected her copy of the Daily Prophet and paid the owl. There were gasps all around the Great Hall as people read the headline:

**VOLDEMORT STRIKES AGAIN!**

Lily felt cold dread enter the bottom of her stomach. For a brief moment, she wondered if she should read the article. She wondered if she'd want to know. Curiosity won over and she began to read.

Late last night, aurors from the ministry of magic found the dark mark above what was left of a muggle house. The muggle family that lived there consisted of a mother age 35, name Marie Hutchenson, a father age 37, name John Hutchenson, a 3 year-old daughter, name Renee Hutchenson, a 5 year-old daughter, name, Eve Hutchenson, and an infant son, name Jamie Hutchenson. All bodies were found amongst the rubble. They were believed to be tortured before killed with the Avada Kadavra curse. Eyewitness accounts are as follows: From Thomas Keen a young auror: "I've never seen anything like it. I was the one who found the body of the baby. They mutilated him. He was hardly recognizable as a human." From Angela Reeves, a muggle neighbor (whose memory was of course wiped): I could hear the screams from all the way down the street. They full of so much pain I was sure that they weren't from Earth." And, finally from Henry Potter head of the auror department in the Ministry of Magic, and first on the scene: "It was terrible, but terrible things happen in dark times. He will do this again. Unless we stop him."

Lily put down the paper. Her face was white as a sheet. How could anyone do something so horrible? She was just sickened more as she heard the cheers coming from the Slytherin table. People were laughing and clapping. They were celebrating the deaths of these innocent people. Lily saw Severus amongst the crowd, and to her horror he was smiling and clapping along with the rest. She turned away; she couldn't watch.

James stared down at his plate. He wasn't hungry. How could people do that? He looked over to where his best friend sat. Sirius looked even worse than James felt. And James knew why.

"Someone from my family was part of that attack." Sirius said bitterly. "There's always at least one from my family." James put his arm around Sirius' shoulder as he faltered. "I...I bet it was Bellatrix. I bet she was the one who tortured that little baby." James just held him and nodded.

A/N thanks for reading! Please tell me what you think of this! I'm dying for your feedback! (Literally I'm going to die unless you review this right now!) Since it's summer I hope to be able to post an update every few days. Remember R&R! Luv ya!


	3. Chapter 3

A/N Thank you thebiggestpotterfreak for the review! Sorry for the lack of James and Lily action in the last chapter, I was just trying to set the scene. There will be a little in this chapter, but still not as much as you would probably like, but Lily is taking her sweet time. So if you're reading this, thank you for reading my story! I hope that you enjoy and remember to r&r!

Severus looked over to where Lily was sitting. She looked like she was going to be sick. He suddenly felt ashamed. He quietly sat back down.

Lily sat staring at the paper. The death eaters had killed a muggle family. That could've been her family. Her mother, her father, her sister. She couldn't believe it.

"Lily, are you okay?" asked a concerned Alice.

"Yeah, just... shocked." Lily answered shaking herself out of her stupor. "It's just hard to believe, I mean before the death eaters just never seemed... I don't know... real."

Alice nodded. "I know what you mean. I knew the war existed, but it always just seemed so far away. I never really thought that would spread so far. I didn't think it could. And now look," she said pointing at the Slytherin table. "It's even here."

Lily nodded. She looked again at the table. To her surprise, Severus was no longer celebrating with the others. He was just sitting, staring at her. She looked away once again. "I can't believe they're excited," Lily said, disgusted.

"Yeah," Alice agreed. "The teachers should stop them."

"I don't think there's anything that the teachers can do."

"Maybe not the teachers, but the Marauders can!" Alice said excitedly. "Look!"

Lily turned and saw Potter and Black heading towards the Slytherins.

James was seeing red, he was so mad. How could they celebrate like this?

"OY!" He yelled to the Slytherins. "Slimy gits!" Many of the other houses cheered as they heard James insult the Slytherins. "Celebrating the deaths of muggles? Is that the most that your master can do? Kill muggles? Voldemort doesn't have the guts to face anyone who can protect themselves against him!"

Everyone gasped as they heard James say Voldemort's name. The Slytherins stepped forward angrily.

Sirius stepped up to James' side. "What's the matter, Avery?" He asked as one boy started forward but then hesitated. "Afraid since your master isn't here to protect you?" Students from other tables had come over to join the Marauders.

"I suppose that you would've saved the filthy rats." Avery spit back

James took a step forward. "Yeah I would've."

"Then you're a blood traitor!" Avery said.

Many students started forward, but before anything could happen, Professor McGonagall walked up.

"I hope that we're having no trouble here boys. I'd hate to have to take house points away," she glared at James and Sirius.

"Nothing's going on Professor," Remus assured her.

"Good." Her lips were thinner than anyone there had ever seen them as she turned away with a swish of her robes and went back to her seat.

Peter and Remus pulled James and Sirius back to the Gryffindor table. All the other students quickly followed, most of them muttering and glaring over their shoulders at the Slytherins.

"Bloody death eaters." Sirius said.

Peter's eyes went wide. "They aren't death eaters though? Are they? I mean most of them are younger than us."

"If they aren't already I'm sure that they will soon." James answered. "I doubt that Voldemort waits for them to turn seventeen."

Lily walked in a daze back up to the girl's dormitory. She and Alice grabbed their trunks and started to lug them down to the grand staircase.

"I still can't believe what happened to those poor muggles." Lily shuddered.

"It's not the first time." Alice said darkly. "Frank's mum works for the ministry and she says that there have been a ton of attacks, but the ministry is trying to keep it quiet so as not to start a panic. Someone must have leaked this story to the Daily Prophet."

"But the head of the aurors department was interviewed." Lily said, and briefly wondered if Henry Potter was James' dad.

"Well once they found out, they probably interviewed him and he knew that he couldn't keep it quiet, so he just made a statement."

"Yeah," Lily said. "I suppose that makes sense.

"Hey did you know that Henry Potter is James' dad?" Alice, giggling.

"I figured." Lily answered. "Kind of surprising though isn't it, that the head of the aurors department would have such a bigheaded bully for a son?"

"Oh I don't know," Alice said thoughtfully. "He mostly makes fun of Slytherins who are death eaters, so who knows? Maybe he gets it from his dad."

"Maybe. Well I hope that the ministry will stop Voldemort soon." Lily said, changing the subject.

Alice gave an involuntary shudder when Lily said the name. Unlike Alice, Lily hadn't been raised as a wizard. She had barely even heard of Voldemort until the third year when he started to gain more power, so she had never been afraid to say the name, but that might be changing soon what with the story in the paper.

Lily and Alice finally gave up trying to push their trunks through the portrait of the fat lady, and just bewitched the bags to fly behind them. After that, they reached the grand staircase no problem. Once they had dropped their trunks off with the other ones waiting to be loaded on the Hogwarts express for all the students that weren't spending the holidays at school, they sat down and waited for to be time to leave.

"What time is it?" Lily asked exasperated after they had been sitting there for sometime.

"10:40. Alice said, looking at the huge clock hanging behind Lily's head. "They'll be boarding the train soon. We should go. We don't want a prefect to be late." She said teasingly.

Lily laughed, and the two friends hurried down the stairs and to the great hall.

James was stuffing his spare robes into his trunk. "Wormtail, you have to come over at some point during break. Remember Moony's staying at my house."

Peter nodded, feeling left out since he was the Marauder who wouldn't be joining James' family for the holidays, since Remus' parents were going out of town and Sirius had been living with Potters since last year when he had run away from his family. They treated him like a second son.

The boys went down to board the horseless carriages that would take them to the train.

"The next full moon is coming up," Sirius said. "Wormtail, you should come over then."

"Yeah," Peter muttered dejectedly.

"Cheer up Wormy," Remus said lightly. "It'll only be a few weeks, then we'll all be at school again."

Peter brightened up after that.

"So," Remus asked James in a whisper, even though there was no one else in the carriage. "Does your Dad know anything else about the attack?"

James sighed. "Probably. He always knows. But if he didn't tell the Daily Prophet, I doubt that he'll tell me."

Sirius grinned. "Well then, we'll just have to find out on our own won't we?"

James smiled. "Yes we will Mr. Padfoot."

The boys laughed until the carriage pulled up next to the train and they were left to scramble to find a compartment to themselves. They ended up having to get some second years to move.

Severus Snape silently boarded the train and slipped quietly into a compart full of other Slytherins. Today would be the day. Yes. Today he could kill James Potter. All he had to do is to convince the others to help him. He turned to Avery, who was still brooding over what had happened at breakfast.

"So Avery, how would you like to get back at the Marauders?" Snape asked. He then turned to face the rest of the compartment. "The Marauders make fun of us and torment us, should we take it?" He asked. Many other students were staring at him now. "We are protected by the most powerful wizard to have ever lived! We can take them! We need to show this school who is in charge. After the Dark Lord takes over, we will be rewarded greatly for our loyalty. We need to show that loyalty. Potter and his followers are blood traiters! They must be punished! We will be the ones to punish them!" All of the Slytherins cheered once Snape had finished, but he didn't even crack a smile. He would not allow Lily to fall in love with Potter. All Potter would do was hurt her. If the only way to make Lily see that was by taking Potter out of the picture, so be it. With that, the Slytherins started to plan their attack.

Lily and Alice talked about what they had gotten their family for Christmas. (Or what they were planning to in Lily's case.)

"What did you get your cow of a sister?" Alice asked, grimacing at the thought of Lily's older sister, Petunia.

Lily shuddered as well. "Haven't decided yet. What do you get someone that hates everything about you?" Alice laughed. "I'm not kidding. I need your help. What should I get her?"

Alice put her finger on her cheek in mock consideration. "Well now, let's see. What does your sister hate the most about you?"

Lily laughed. "The fact that I'm a witch."

"Well then your present has to involve magic of some sort,"

"Obviously."

"And it has to have some other hatred of your sister incorperated... What's something else that she hates?"

"Dogs. Petunia absolutly despises them. It's halarious; her boyfriend's sister is obsessed with them. Has about four. Always brings them over. Petunia has to sit and pretend to like it when they slobber over everything and lick her cheek. It's priceless."

Alice laughed again. "Well now that that's sorted. You should get your sister a bewitched little dog statue that licks anything it touches and barks whenever something moves."

"Yes! One present down, two to go!" Lily exclaimed excitedly.

"So, Peter, what are you going to over break?" James asked.

Peter shrugged. "Guess I'll just hang around the house."

Sirius groaned. "Moony, how long has it been?"

Remus checked his watch. "A couple of hours."

Sirius groaned again.

"Hey, this'll entertain you, mate!" James laughed, pointing out of the compartment window. "Look who's decided to pay us a visit." Walking towards them was Snape with Avery and another Slytherin boy trailing behind them. "Old Snivellus."

Sirius laughed, right as the compartment door flew open.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N Sorry it took me so long to update, I just have had the hardest time getting inspired for this chapter. I don't know why, I was just super lazy this week. Thanks everyone who has reviewed and sighed up to follow this story, it's really appreciated! This isn't my favorite chapter, and it can probably be worked on more, but I've kept everyone waiting long enough, so I'm going to go ahead and post it. Anyway, here's it is.

Sirius stood up, "And what do you think you're doing in our compartment?" he asked, pointing his wand at the intruders.

Snape sneered at Sirius. "What? Are the great Marauders are afraid of a little company?" He asked, looking pointedly from the wand in Sirius' hand to Peter, who cowering in the back of the compartment.

James stood up next to Sirius. "Get out of here!"

Snape turned to him, but Avery beat him to it. "Why? Do you need it so you can shag your little mudblood?"

Snape flinched, but didn't say anything.

James, roared and started towards him, but Remus held him back. "They're just trying to bait you, mate."

James didn't appear to have heard him, and kept struggling to get at Avery.

The Slytherins laughed. The other boy turned to Avery. "Guess he doesn't like us to call his little girlfriend a mudblood." He stressed the last word.

James roared again and broke free of Remus' grasp. He started towards the Slytherins with his wand raised. "Rictusempra!" He shouted, but Snape blocked his spell.

"Really Potter? I was hoping for more. You're father would be disappointed. The son of the head of the aurors department using such a elementary spell? First years can perform it. Maybe the Marauders aren't all they're cracked up to be!" The three boys laughed.

This time, all of the Marauders stepped towards the Slytherins. "Furnunculus!" Sirius shouted, his wand aimed at the boy standing beside Snape. The boy's skin erupted into boils before he could block the curse. Sirius laughed. "Remember that next time you decide to challenge the Marauders, Nott!"

The two remaining Slytherins. barred their teeth, and started to retreat out of the compartment.

"Where do you think you're going?" James asked fiercely. "Impedimenta!" James' goal was to prevent the two boys from leaving, but the jinx instead tripped the boys into the hallway. They both rolled across the floor until they slammed into the door of the compartment across the way. Soon students had emerged from it, followed quickly by people all up and down the aisle.

Snape and Avery scrambled to their feet, and faced the Marauders again. "Petrificus Totalus!" Snape yelled.

"Protego!" Remus muttered, creating a shield that Snape's spell ricocheted off of, and hit a girl standing in the doorway of a compartment, who then fell to the ground. The students who were watching, shrank back.

Emmeline Vance, who was a friend of the girl who had been struck came to stand beside the Marauders. Other students joined her. Soon both sides had many people standing with them.

With a snarl, Snape aimed a jinx at James.

James blocked the incantation with a swish of his wand, and the fight began again.

"What in the world is going on out there?" Lily asked Alice, who only shook her head.

"You should go see, being a prefect and all."

Lily sighed. "Can't they give me one day off?"

Alice shrugged.

Lily sighed again, but pulled open the compartment door. "What the hell?"

Alice looked up, and came to stand by her friend. She gasped when she saw the scene in the aisle. "It's a full scale battle!"

"I have to do something!" Lily cried, but her legs felt like jelly.

"I don't know if there is anything that you can do!" Alice said, then ducked as a stray jinx flew towards her head.

"Well students are going to be harmed!" Lily said, looking at the shattered window in their compartment, where the jinx had hit. "They can't go on like this!"

Alice rolled up her robe sleeves, and set her face. "Well if you're going out there, you're going to need help!"

Lily nodded, and they ran out into the battle.

Alice, avoiding a curse, slammed into Lily. "It's crazy out here!" She yelled to her friend over all the noise. "How the hell are you going to stop this?"

"I have no idea!" Lily shouted back.

Suddenly, Alice was hit with a jinx. "Ahhhh! I can't see anything!" She cried, dropping her wand, and feeling her eyes with her hands.

"Calm down," Lily soothed, though she herself was freaking out. "What did you get hit with?" She asked.

Alice took a couple deep breaths. "I don't know! All I can tell you is that it made me blind!"

_Okay, _Lily thought. _What could it be. Blinding. Blinding. I know I 've read about blinding spells somewhere! There's... uh... Cantramedverto! Now, how do I cure it?_ She wondered. "Um... Finite Incantatem!" She said, pointing her wand at Alice's eyes. "Can you see?" She asked hopefully.

"No... wait, it's clearing up!" Alice exclaimed excitedly. "Yeah, I can see now! Thanks, Lily!" she said, hugging her friend.

"Well what are friends for?" Lily asked with a laugh.

"Undoing jinxes!" Alice laughed back.

Lily looked around herself, and was suddenly brought back to the problem at hand. She had forgotten the battle momentarily while dealing with Alice. "Damn! What are we going to do about this?" She asked.

"No idea," Alice grinned. "Guess we'll just have to improvise!"

Sirius was locked in a duel with a scrawny black-haired Slytherin boy; his brother.

"Is that all you've got Regulus?" Sirius taunted. "I can't believe that I'm related to you.'

Regulus gave a cry of rage. "You are not related to me! I share no blood with blood traitors!"

"So that's what I am now, is it?" Sirius asked. "Mum and dad still feeding you that crap?"

Regulus yelled again, and attacked his older brother.

Sirius gave a crazy exhilarated laugh, and defended himself.

"At least I don't consort with mudbloods!" Regulus spit.

Sirius' features softened. "I don't get it Reg, you're not like them! You're not bloodthirsty, you're not a killer why do want to be one of them?" He asked.

Regulus seemed confused for a second, but then his face hardened. "You don't know me! You haven't known me for years! Not since you were sorted into Gryffindor!"

"So that's what this is all about?" Sirius asked. "Me getting sorted into the wrong house?" He started to duel to duel once more.

James was dueling with Severus Snape. The two boys locked in a ferocious battle, neither able to gain the upper hand, until:

"Expelliarmus!" James shouted. The blast of his spell knocking Snape off his feet, and sending his wand flying.

Snape tried to scramble to his feet, but was thrown back with a swish from James' wand. Snape looked up at James and sneered. "You don't deserve her." he said quietly.

"What?" James asked angrily

"You don't deserve Lily Evans."

"And you do?" James asked incredulously.

"I never said that." Snape said too softly for James to hear.

"You called her mudblood!" James practically yelled.

Snape cringed at the memory.

"You're a death eater!" James said furiously "Reducto!" He yelled, the incantation for exploding solid objects, his wand pointed at Snape's head.

Snape ducked at the last second and the ground right above him exploded.

James stared at his hands. _What am I becoming? _He thought to himself. _I almost killed Snape._ He turned away from the boy still lying on the ground in shame. _Who have I become?_ His train of thought was interrupted as something hit him in the back. His body stiffened and his arms jumped to his sides. He slowly toppled to the ground.

"Whose in charge now, Potter?" Snape sneered, standing over James, his wand outstretched. "You don't deserve to even say her name." He spat. "She does not need you! She does not love you... she never will," he added as an afterthought.

"Well, she loves you less!" James said quietly.

"I will kill you, Potter!" Snape whispered. "Sectumsempra!" He yelled slashing his wand violently.

James' chest erupted into pain. Blood poured out of a huge gaping cut, and onto the floor around him. James gasped, a strangled noise.

"You are finished Potter," Snape said, and walked away.

Lily and Alice continued to fight their way through the crowd.

"How the hell did this even start?" Lily wondered aloud.

"No idea," Alice said, while casting a shield charm to protect them from the barrage of oncoming hexes and jinxes.

"Alice," Lily called, looking behind her to find her friend, but saw no one. "Alice!" She called louder, but to no avail, they had gotten separated in the crowd. "Damn," she muttered to herself. _This is just what I need. _Lily thought, as her foot caught on something and she fell to the ground, having tripped over... a body? _Oh, no. This cannot be happening._ Lily thought as she gazed at the thing that she had tripped over. She slowly looked at the face. Potter. Lily felt her heart beat increase rapidly. _He's not dead, _she thought. _He's not dead, he can't be!_ She looked over his body and saw a huge gash across his chest. It almost looked like... no it couldn't be, but deep down Lily knew that it was. It was Snape. Snape had done this. "Ferula!" Lily said, pointing her wand at James' wound, and bandages slowly wrapped around his mutilated chest.

Lily stood up and looked at the scene in front of her. _I have to stop this, _was all she thought. "Sonorus," She muttered, her wand touching her throat. She felt a strange tingling sensation spread around her neck, as the magically magnifying spell took hold. "STOP!" She yelled, and to her amazement everyone froze. "EVERYONE GET BACK TO YOUR COMPARTMENTS!" A few of the younger students put down their wands, and skulked to the back of the crowd. "NOW!"

The Slytherins sneered. "Or what?" One of them asked.

"Yeah," another agreed. "We don't take orders from a mudblood!"

Many Gryffindors started forward at the insult, but Lily struck first. "Langlock!" She shouted, a spell that Snape had taught her. The Slytherin opened his mouth to say something, but found that his tongue was stuck to the top of his mouth. After that, that no one else argued, everyone slunk back to their seats, leaving Lily to deal with those who had been hit by spells.

"Hey," Alice said, bounding up to Lily. "You were great!"

Lily smiled appreciatively. "Thanks, Alice. Will you help me with these people?" She asked, gesturing towards the line of people, who were waiting for Lily to help them.

"Sure." Alice answered, already starting to help a small fourth year girl who was covered in green welts. "Was anyone seriously injured?" She asked.

"There were a few broken bones, which I splinted, but the worst was a huge gash on Potter's chest."

Alice gasped. "He's alright though right?"

Lily sighed, "There wasn't much that I could do. I bandaged it, but he'll need some real medical attention and soon."

"Well, we're almost to London."

"Thank god. All these people could do with proper medical attention."

A/N Thank you for reading this! I hope you liked it. I won't be able to upload another chapter for a week, because I have to go to camp. L I'll try to upload again next Sunday, but it'll probably be longer than that. So, once again thank you to everyone who has read this story, and please review! J


	5. Chapter 5

A/N I'm sooooooooo sorry that it took me so long to update! I know it's been like three weeks! I know that you probably hate me, and I'm really sorry. It's been really hectic. When I got back from camp, I went almost straight to Ireland! Please don't hate me forever! Here it finally is! Chapter five! I hope it doesn't suck! (I wrote it really quickly since I kept you all waiting so long!)

Severus Snape slunk away from Kings Cross Station before any Ministry officials could come swooping to investigate the commotion on the train. He smiled to himself; today had gone exactly as planned.

Lily thankfully entered her car. It had been hectic getting off the train She had had to explain what had happened to the Ministry over and over. She sighed; in truth, she barely knew more then them. Lily looked out the window, and watched London flash by, her mind started to wander. It kept stumbling back to the image of James lying on the floor of the train. A shiver ran up her spine and she shook her head sharply to clear it.

"So Lils, what was with all the commotion at the station?" Her dad asked. "Did something happen?"

Lily thanked Merlin that her dad hadn't seen her talking to the Ministry official, or he would be much more worried. "Um... a couple of guys got into a fight..."

Her father frowned. "It seemed a lot of trouble to go to for a fight," he said slowly, looking pointedly at his daughter.

"Well the Ministry overreacted," Lily gave a light, fluttery laugh, and prayed that her father would buy this explanation. To her immense relief, his expression cleared, and he started to smile once again.

"That's good. I was afraid something horrible had happened!" He laughed.

Lily felt a twinge of guilt as she remembered the gaping slash on Potter's back. She shivered again. She spent the rest of the car ride sitting in silence.

"Mum!" Lily cried, running to hug her mother who was waiting for her in the doorway to a quaint little cottage.

"Lily! How was the first semester?"

"Great!" Lily answered, nestling her head deeper into her mother's flowered apron. She breathed deeply smelling flour, and smiled not caring that she was almost seventeen, and for a moment all her problems went out the window. She forgot about James and Severus. She forgot about school, Voldemort, and the war. For that one moment, she was a child again. Lily's moment of peace was interrupted by her sister coming to join their mother in the doorway.

"Mum I need-" She stopped as she saw Lily. "Oh. _You're_ here."

Their mother frowned at Petunia's cold reception of Lily "Petunia-" she started.

"Fine Mum," Petunia cut her off. She started again. "Hello _Lils_," she sneered at the old nickname. "I hope you had a good autumn at your-" she glanced at her mother before continuing. "School."

Lily rolled her eyes at her sister's greeting. "Nice to see to see you too, Tuney." She smiled as Petunia narrowed her eyes. "If you'll excuse me," Lily said, pushing her way through the door.

"Freak," Petunia hissed in her ear.

Lily gritted her teeth and just kept walking. _Don't let her get to you. Don't let her get to you,_ she repeated up the stairs, until she made it to her room, where she was greeted by a friendly face.

"Hey Ash!" She exclaimed, feeding her faithful owl a treat. She had been stroking him for a number of minutes before she noticed the small piece of parchment he had attached to his talon. Lily brightened when she saw that it was from Alice.

Dear Lily,

I hope that the reunion with your family was good. (Don't let your sister get to you! She's just jealous and you know it!) That was pretty amazing on the train today! My parents freaked out. They're talking about pulling me out of Hogwarts and just teaching me themselves. Don't worry though; it's just talk. I know they won't do it. They think that it had something to do with You Know Who. (_I_ think they've gotten paranoid.) They suggested that I invite you over for supper tomorrow. (They won't take my word for it that you're all right!) Write me back as soon as you can!

Love, Alice

Lily laughed at Alice's letter, and went downstairs to ask her parents if she could.

James lay on the clean crisp white sheets, of St. Mungo's. It had been about twelve hours since the fight on the train. He had tried repeatedly to convince his healers to let him go home, but they insisted he stay until they were sure that his chest would heal.

"We don't know what magic was used to create the wound, therefore we have no idea how it will heal! There may be unforeseen consequences to the treatment. We'd like to keep you here until we are sure that it will heal, and cause no permanent damage!"

James sighed; he had heard at least nine versions of that speech. It all came down to the same thing: he couldn't leave.

"Hey Prongs!" Sirius said cheerfully. "How you doing?"

James glared at him, causing Sirius to chuckle.

"You know you haven't even been here a full day, mate!"

James sighed again. "I know. I'm never going to last here!"

"It's not that bad! I've been here the whole time too!"

James rolled his eyes. "And where have you been for the last two hours? Chatting up girls in the tearoom I expect!"

Sirius' grin told James that he had guessed right.

"Oh, and by the way, this was outside your door." He then produced a basket full of cards, many of them singing or talking. (Some were even dancing and crying!)

James sighed for the third time. They would all be from his 'fan club' "How many letters is it possible to send in twelve hours?" He asked, annoyed.

"There's no limit, mate."

"Have I ever told you how much girls annoy me?"

Sirius laughed. "Nope; you've been too busy snogging them!"

James ignored him. "I mean really! Why would I want this?" He asked, holding a card that was singing a particularly irritating melody. "How the hell do turn this damn thing off?" He said, banging it against the bedside table.

Sirius chuckled again, clearly enjoying his friend's discomfort. "You'll have to ask... Sara Abbott!" he answered, reading the sender's name over his shoulder.

James muttered angrily to himself. "Just shut them up!" He covered his ears.

"Silencio." Sirius said, his wand pointed at the multitude of cards, and they fell silent. "What happened to your wand?" He asked, after glancing at the coffee table and not finding it there.

"It was confiscated after an incident with a healer, fireworks, and a flammable liquid."

"That I doubt that you could be blamed for."

James laughed. "All the evidence was circumstantial."

"Wrong place wrong time." And, they both chuckled. They stopped abruptly as a stern looking healer entered.

"Mr. Potter, We have decided to release you from our care."

Sirius' gaze drifted to James' face, and he almost fell over laughing at the ridiculously happy expression that he found there.

"On your way out, you may collect your wand from the front desk."

Sirius snickered, but he stopped when the healer shot him a glare.

"You'll have to take it easy for a couple of days."

"Don't think Jams will be following that order," Sirius muttered.

The healer glared at him again. "Perhaps there is something more important you could be doing?"

"Nope!" Sirius answered cheerfully, flashing her one of his trademark grins.

The healer turned back to James. "You're mother is waiting for you in the waiting room." She helped James out of bed. When he was standing, she nodded to both of them, and left the rom.

Sirius threw James his shirt that had lying on the chair.

James painfully shrugged it on, and then the two friends followed the healer into the hallway.

When they reached the waiting room, they were greeted with a hug. After collecting James' wand, they stepped into the fireplace, and with the help of floo powder, soon they had reached James' house.

Both of James' worked for the ministry, but they didn't live in London, they lived in a nice house in Godric's Hollow. Henry Potter was a good man. much less humorous than his son, but he chose to believe that all the mischief that James and Sirius (because, of course, Sirius was his son in all but blood.) got up to, was merely a sign that they were immensely good at magic. James' mother was more concerned.

"James Potter!" She yelled as soon as they were home. "I am ashamed! Not only were you fighting on the train, but you also got your wand confiscated at a hospital for god sake! I'm surprised that you weren't expelled from Hogwarts!"

Sirius chuckled as James quivered under his mother's gaze, but realized his mistake as Jean Potter then directed her attention to him.

Don't you laugh. I'm sure that you had a part to play in this!'"

Sirius swallowed. "Innocent, Ma'am!" He said, saluting.

The anger in Mrs. Potter's face was broken by a smile. "Here are your boys," She said as her husband walked in.

"James!" He cried running to hug his son. "I heard you got hurt! Sorry I didn't come to visit in the hospital, but I couldn't get away from work, I just arrived here a minute ago!"

James nodded. knowing that it was tough for both his parents, what with Voldemort running around. They both looked dead tired.

"Sirius!" Mr. Potter said, hugging his adopted son. "Did you have a good semester?"

"Yep!" Sirius said smiling.

James grinned as well; he was home.

A/N So how was it? I really want your opinion! Please review. I promise that I'll update sooner next time! There isn't really anything left to say, so good-bye!

P.S. Did I tell you to review? because I really want you to review!

P.P.S thank you any new followers, and of course thank you all the old followers! You guys are the reason I do this!


	6. Chapter 6

A/N Sorry it took me so long to update... again. I suck, I know. And since I kept you waiting for so long, I tried to write this one really fast, so I'm afraid that this isn't the best chapter in the world. Thank you to all the subscribers, and anyone who reviewed. Thank you so much for the feedback. (But I need more!) I just saw the last Harry Potter movie. I was impressed, but still they could have done it better. I was disappointed with Snape's memories. I mean most of James and Lily fanfics are based on (If loosely) those memories. And what is up with 40-year-old actors playing Lily and James? They were 21 when they died, not 45! Sorry, about that just need a vent for my frustration. So R&R, blah blah blah, and enjoy chapter six!

James groaned softly as he pulled himself off his bed. His chest was better for the most part, but it still stung if he twisted too far to either side. It didn't help that it was the last day of Christmas vacation either. He sighed, he'd had a good break, well as good as it could be when his mother would barely let him leave his bed. It would be nice to see Peter and Remus again. He was worried about Remus; the full moon had come over break. Sirius was the only one of the Marauders able to visit Remus, and to help his transformation be less horrendous. Since Sirius had yet to return, James was left with nothing to do.

He walked over to his desk, and sat in thought. His mind drifted to the fight on the train. He hadn't gotten in trouble, because the ministry had many differing accounts of who started the fight. If anything, most of them seemed to be pointed towards the Slytherins. One rumor (he gathered from one of the letters from a member of his 'fan club') was that Nott was going to be expelled. James doubted that it was true, and his parents refused to tell him anything. He groaned again he couldn't stand just sitting there with nothing to do. He hoped that Sirius would be back soon, but since it was the last day of break, he would probably just meet James at Platform 9 3/4 the next day.

"James get back in bed!" His mother yelled to him from the stairs.

James swore and quickly got between the sheets. He didn't know if she really knew that he was out of bed, or if it was just a lucky guess, but he did not want to face Jean Potter's wrath.

"I am in bed, Mum!" He yelled back down, knowing perfectly well that it wouldn't fool her one bit.

"You're going to have to do better than that James; I heard you scrambling around up there! I am an auror you know!"

James decided not to answer her. "Is Sirius back yet?" He asked, trying to distract her.

"You tell me!"

James groaned softly and rolled over onto his side. It was going to be a long day.

Lily rolled out of her bed, early in the morning. She wasn't usually a morning person, but Petunia tended to sleep in, and Lily avoided her sister whenever she could. Her break had been all right, but she missed Hogwarts. The long hallways, the torches that illuminated all the rooms, the ghosts, and just the magic of it all. It was amazing how in six years the castle had grown to feel more like home to her than her real home did. Of course, it was mostly because of Petunia that it didn't feel like home. Lily longed for the time before Petunia had found out that she was a witch, before the deep gorge between them had been forged, when Petunia still called her Lils and didn't refer to her as "the freak." Lily's mind drifted back to Christmas Eve, when Petunia's new boyfriend had come over. A disgusting man named Vernon. Vernon Dursley.

Ring! Ring! The doorbell rang repeatedly.

"I'll get it!" Petunia cried, literally leaping out of her chair, and almost spraining her ankle. Lily giggled, and then wished that she hadn't, because Petunia then turned to her, and started to repeat the same talk that she had been giving Lily for hours.

"Remember what I told you, Vernon doesn't know anything about your... your... condition, and I don't plan on telling him anytime soon! So don't you dare do any magic tricks or stunts or anything that's not normal!" She hissed, speaking so quickly that Lily could barely understand her.

Ring! The doorbell rang again.

"Petunia! For god sake! Get the door!" their mother yelled from the kitchen.

Petunia narrowed her eyes at Lily once more for good measure, then turned towards the front door. "Coming!" She sang, and practically skipped to open it.

Vernon Dursley stood in the doorway. Lily gasped when he saw what her sister's boyfriend looked like. Petunia swung her head towards Lily like a snake. Lily hid a giggle behind her hand. So this was her sister's great love. He was the fattest man that she had ever seen. He had no neck whatsoever, his eyes looked like they belonged on a rat, they were so beady, and his face had a strange purplish tinge to it, as though he didn't suck in enough air each time he took a breath.

"Vernon, this is my sister Lily," Petunia said the word sister like it was poisonous.

Lily sighed inwardly, when she saw the look of disgust spread across Vernon's face. She wondered briefly what Petunia had told him about her. Nothing good obviously. "Hello, Vernon," She said sweetly, then gracefully got out of her chair, and walked over to the huge man in the doorway. She held out her hand.

Vernon looked at her hand apprehensively. He looked at his girlfriend, as if to ask if it was safe to touch Lily. Petunia was boring holes into Lily's head and didn't notice her boyfriend's frightened gaze. Eventually, Vernon kind of slapped Lily's hand, like he was afraid to touch for long enough to shake it properly.

Lily sat back down, and watched with amusement as her sister had to help him through the doorway. Petunia glared at her again, and Lily decided that it may be time to leave, when her mother entered the room.

"Petunia, will you please-" She stopped as she saw Vernon. Lily saw her mother pause, looking at her daughter's boyfriend, but then her smile returned. "You must be Vernon," She said, walking over to him and reaching out her hand. Lily noticed that he had no trouble shaking her mother's thin hand with his beefy one. Apparently whatever contagious disease she had didn't run in the family.

"It's so good to meet you Ma'am," Vernon said in a wheezy voice.

"Uh... you to," Their mother said, detaching her hand from the shake. As she turned away, Lily saw her wipe spit off her face.

Petunia and Vernon followed her into the sitting room. After some deliberation, Lily followed them, deciding that the amusement of it would probably be worth the oral beating that Petunia would be sure to give her after.

Their father was already waiting for them. His look was apprehensive as Vernon walked in.

"Hello,"

"Hello, Sir," Vernon answered.

An awkward silence filled the room, broken finally by Lily's mother.

"So, Vernon, Petunia tells us that you just graduated from college. What did you major in?"

Vernon sifted slightly in his chair, and said proudly, "Business, Ma'am."

"Oh, how interesting. What do you plan to be?"

"President of a large company."

"What do you want to sell?" Mr. Evans asked, joining the conversation for the first time.

"Oh, doesn't really matter does it? As long as I make enough money," he answered, waving his hand in the air vaguely.

The Evan's eyes shifted uncomfortably. Lily once again had to hide her laughter.

So the conversation continued for several minutes. It was filled with uneasy gazes and awkward pauses. Vernon Dursley proved to be arrogant, vile, judgmental, and racist. Perfect for Petunia in Lily's opinoin. Perhaps Potter wasn't so bad after all.

Soon they moved to the dining room, where after an hour filled with prejudice statements, and bad golfing jokes, Lily excused herself, saying she had to go to the bathroom. From the envious look in her father's eyes, Lily could tell that he wished that he could follow her.

In the bathroom, Lily splashed water on her face. She had no idea how her sister could stand that man. It was literally torture to be in the same room as him for any length of time. Lily shivered. A muffled voice drifted to her then. Coming through the bathroom wall.

"I can't believe that you let her eat at the table with you. Aren't you afraid that she'll... have a fit or something, I mean in her condition." It was Vernon.

Lily gritted her teeth, and wondered again what Petunia had told him, and what her 'condition' was. At least he'd had the manners to wait until she left to talk about it, but something told Lily that he hadn't done it out of politeness.

"And what condition are you referring to?" Mr. Evans asked in a tight and strained voice.

Lily could feel the pause as Vernon doubtlessly wondered if he should continue.

"Well the fact that she's mentally unstable. That she has to go to a special school to keep from hurting people whenever she has meltdowns."

Once again, Lily could feel the tension in the other room.

"Get. Out." Mr. Evans said in a dangerously calm voice.

"What?"

"Get. Out. Of. My. House." This time he said it louder, practically a scream.

Lily heard scrambling then scurrying down the hall, and finally a door slam.

"Vernon!" It was Petunia. Another door slammed.

Lily climbed the staircase to her room. She tried not to let it bother her, but it did anyway. She sat on her bed and cried.

Lily sighed as she came back from the memory, no it had not been the best holiday, but she would be returning to Hogwarts the next day.

A/N sorry that you had such a long wait for such a short chapter, but really the only point of it was to introduce Vernon. Sorry that there was barely any James and no Snape, but once again the point of the chapter was to introduce Vernon to the story, and there will be plenty of James and Snape once everyone gets back to Hogwarts! Once again, thank you to anyone who reviewed I appreciate it, and anyone who read it! Please review!


	7. Chapter 7

A/N Yay! I actually got this one out in good time. (That's a first.) I admit that I really don't have a clue what I'm doing, but hopefully the story is coming together. This chapter is mostly Lily again. Some James. A little Snape. Please tell me what you think! Keep on reading, and review! Review! Review! (Please?)

Lily ran through the barrier at King's Cross Station, and emerged on platform 9 ¾. She took a deep breath, and stood for a moment just happy to be back in the magical world, but then a sort of cold drifted over her, she shivered and kept on walking. She ignored all the hustle and bustle around her and took her time weaving through the mobs of kids to get to the train. It was the first time that she had ever gone to the train without her parents present to say good-bye. They had both been busy, so she had taken the trolley. She was seventeen after all. She tried not to let the absence of her parents bother her, but it did nonetheless.

"Lily!" A voice called, and Lily saw Alice running towards her. "Lily!" She called again, catching up with her friend.

"What is it Alice?" Lily asked frantically.

Alice was doubled over clutching her stomach. Apparently she had run all around the station looking for Lily.

"Alice are you alright?" Lily asked, starting to get genuinely worried

Alice held up a finger, puffed a few more times, took a deep breath and said, "Lily, I have a letter for you," She stopped to take a breath; she was still doubled-over. "It's from Dumbledore."

Lily face grew confused. "Why? Has something happened?"

"No, it's just a prefect thing... I think."

"But he's never sent us messages like this. Why didn't he send an owl?"

Alice shrugged. And shoved a envelope in Lily's hand." All I know is that Professor McGonagall handed me a pile of envelopes and asked me deliver them. They're all addressed to prefects. I'm sure it's nothing- Oh there's Josh Corner! Gotta go! Listen I'll see you on the train!" With that, Alice was off, chasing after the Ravenclaw prefect.

Lily sighed at her friend, and then looked at the envelope in her hand. It was slightly damp. Lily supposed that this was from how tightly Alice was grasping it. She turned it over and broke the seal.

Dear Prefects, and Heads,

Sorry to be communicating with you in this way, and I can only hope that you receive your letters. If someone didn't, please fill him or her in. I would have used the normal means of post, but it was so last minute, I feared that everyone had already left their houses. I'm sure that all of you are aware of the fight on the train two weeks ago, as many of you tried to break it up, and a very few were involved.

Lily's hands started to shake. Sev. Sev had participated in it. Probably started it. She knew. It had been him who had slashed Potter's chest open. She knew that spell. She took a deep calming breath, and continued to read Dumbledore's letter.

The Minister of Magic wanted to post guards to patrol the train corridors to make sure that no such fighting breaks out again. Since he couldn't possibly spare any aurors, he suggested dementors, and I refused.

Lily gasped. Dementors! She had read about them. They guarded the wizard prison, Azkaban. From what she understood, they were some of the most horrid of magical creatures. Even though they were under the Ministry's control, they were still dangerous. How could the Minister even suggest using them to guard children? It was absurd. She continued to read.

I told him that the Hogwarts Prefects were more than capable of patrolling the corridors. Finally, I convinced. You all have a very important duty. I don't want any politics to interfere, regardless of your beliefs; all of your first priority is the safety of the students. Be wary, for this is not your only mission, I was able to convince the Minister not to allow the dementors to board the train, but he still insisted that they monitor it while it was on the platform. Your duty is to make sure that all the students get by them safely. Good luck, and thank you.

Sincerely,

Albus Dumbledore

Albus Dumbledore

Lily gasped for the second time. Suddenly the cold feeling she felt when she first entered the platform made all too much sense.

She hauled her trunk closer the train, and saw that at each door, a black cloaked figured drifted off to the side. Even from her distance, Lily could see the skeletal hands that protruded from the ragged coal colored sleeves. As she approached, the cold crept slyly through her body. Her mind drifted through bad memory after bad memory. The day her grandmother died, her funeral, the day that Petunia had first called her a freak. More recent memories too: Christmas Eve with Vernon Dursley, and for some reasons the image of Potter lying on the train floor. The first second that she had seen him and she'd been sure that he was dead. This memory confused her. She hadn't realized that she regarded that memory as horrific as the others. Maybe, despite her best efforts, she beginning to like Potter. No. No, that wasn't it. I t couldn't be, she was just scared that someone she knew had died. That was all. She refused to think of Potter beyond that. She deposited her trunk in the prefect's carriage, and went back out to the platform to help the younger kids get past the dementors.

"So, Prongs, How's your chest?" Remus asked James.

"Fine. How are you doing?"

Remus eyes shifted down to his hands. "Sirius did a good job; the transformation wasn't that bad."

James could hear the lie in his friend's voice. Remus refused to meet his eyes.

"Back to you. I can't believe that that your chest is fine."

"Yeah, the healers at St. Mungo's said that I was lucky that it didn't lose more blood, or it wouldn't have been 'fine.'"

"Yeah, lucky for you that Lily was there."

James looked up at Remus, a puzzled expression on his face. "Lily? What do you mean Lily?"

Remus looked just as surprised as James. "You mean you didn't know? I thought that someone would've told you."

"Tell me what?" James asked standing up.

"Maybe I was the only one who saw it," Remus muttered to himself.

"Saw what? For Merlin's sake tell what you saw!"

"Well after the fight broke out, we all got separated. I couldn't find you, Sirius, or Peter. I was trying not to you know... get involved..."

James nodded, Remus always tried not to get involved. Dumbledore had made him a prefect, and Remus felt as though he owed to the headmaster. More often then not, he was the only Marauder out of detension. (Joined occasionally by Peter.)

"I was running through the crowd. I saw you laying there, bleeding on the ground. You had lost consciousness by this point. I tried to reach you, but I couldn't push through the mob of fighters, besides she beat me there."

Remus paused to look at James, who was staring into his hands. "What happened?" He asked quietly, hardly more then a whisper.

"Well she cast some spell that wound bandages around your chest. She looked at you a second, then magically magnified her voice and stopped the fight."

"Are you serious?" James asked.

Remus nodded, looking at his friend carefully. "James..." he started, but James shook his head.

"It probably didn't mean anything. I mean she would've done it for anyone, right?" He asked Remus.

Remus could see the hope in his eyes. "I don't know mate." Remus said shrugging. "Maybe, but maybe not. It seemed like more than that to me. She... if you had seen it." He shook his head. "I honestly don't know."

James nodded.

"Hey guys," Sirius said, walking into the compartment. "You'll never guess who I just snogged-"

"Not now," said James, shouldering his way past Sirius. "I have to go do something." He left the compartment.

"What's up with Prongs?" Sirius asked Remus.

Remus didn't answer.

Lily was patrolling the corridors. The prefects had decided to take it in shifts. If any fighting broke out, the person on duty could call the others, and hopefully they could stop it before it got out of hand.

"Evans." said a voice behind her.

Lily swiveled around, sighing inwardly. It was Potter, but when she saw him, she was surprised; he wasn't wearing his usual arrogant smirk.

"What do want?" She asked. "I'm busy."

"Doing what?" He asked, looking around at the peaceful corridor.

Lily gritted her teeth. That was more like the Potter that she knew.

"I just wanted to say that I know what you did on the train."

Lily's mind went into shock. How did he know? "I would've done it for anyone." She said, turning away, trying to make herself believe it.

He put a hand on her shoulder. "Wait, Lily,"

She faced him again, shocked that he had used her first name.

"Thanks." With that he walked away.

Lily leaned against the wall. She slowly slid down, until she was sitting on the floor. She put her head in her hands. What was going on? She didn't even know how she felt anymore.

Severus Snape withdrew his face from the window on the door to his compartment. His face was red. He burned with jealousy and rage. He had touched her. Potter had touched Lily. He tried to convince himself that it was nothing, but he knew without a doubt that if he had touched her shoulder, she'd have shook it off. The fact that she hadn't with Potter's hurt more than her rejection ever could.

When the train pulled up to the gates, and everyone boarded the horseless carriages, Snape was still brooding over Potter and Lily's conversation. When the carriages pulled up to the school, he was still horrified. After he had unpacked, he wandered the dimly lit hallways of the castle aimlessly.

James was also wondering, contemplating what had happened, when he ran into someone. "Sorry," James said, and then saw who it was. "Oh it's you, Snivelly. What are doing wondering around, trying to find an extra large tissue to blow your extra large nose?"

Snape stared daggers into James' head. "Stay away from Lily Potter. She's made it pretty clear that she's not interested."

James stopped, wondering if Snape had somehow heard his conversation with Lily. He stepped closer to the slime ball. "Really? Last time that I checked Evans didn't belong to you!"

Snape said, "If you touch her again I'll kill you."

So he had seen it. "You're pathetic. She'll never love you. She may not like me very much, but at least I'm not a deatheater who called her a mudblood!"

Snape backed away as though Potter had hit him. "Stay away from her!" He said again, and stalked away.

A/N So there it is! It's a little short (Sorry) but other than that it's all right. Remember to review!


	8. Chapter 8

A/N I know that it took me a ridiculously long time to get this chapter posted, and I am deeply sorry.

Before you go and read this chapter, I need to explain a little mishap about last chapter, if you read my comments on chapter 7, you saw ShootinStar's comment about how Lily's name was Lily Evans at the time, and not Lily Potter like I said when Snape was talking to James. That was a little mess up; I forgot the comma. I meant that Snape said, "Stay away from Lily, Potter," like he was addressing James, and not saying Lily's last name. It was completely my fault, and I'd like to thank ShootinStar for pointing it out, so I could go back and edit the chapter. It should be right know, so if you are just starting to read this story, and didn't encounter the mistake, please forget that this Author note ever happened, if you did notice it, also pretend that it never happened, for it is fixed know. (Or should be, I haven't checked.)

This chapter is going to be a little short and I know that it's horrible to have kept you waiting for so long, and then have a short chapter, but I figure that it's better to post something rather than nothing. Read and Review! (Please, I have a competition going with my brother to see whose story can get more reviews, if you have a sibling, please be sympathetic and review many many times!)

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and I hope that you continue to read my story.

I know that this was a really long authors note, I don't blame anyone if they skip it, and I'm just making it longer, so without further ado, (drum roll, please) I present you with Prankster's Delight, chapter 8! Enjoy! (And Review!)

Lily splashed water on her face. She kept thinking about the conversation that she'd had with Potter on the train. She didn't know what to think about it, let alone what someone else would, so she hadn't told anyone, not even Alice. Maybe she'd misjudged Potter from the beginning. Maybe he wasn't such a bad guy. No. No, as Lily thought of the years of torment that Snape had had to endure, she knew that Potter was nothing but a bully. One sweet thank you wouldn't make up for that. _But maybe Snape deserved it._ A small voice in her head said. _He called you a mudblood. He's not exactly a saint himself._ Lily tried to clear her head of these, conflicting thoughts, by wetting her face again.

"Lily you're going to have to get out of there at some point!" Alice yelled to her friend through the door. "Dorcas has to use the toilet!"

"I'm coming, just a second!" Lily sighed. She would have to wait until later to decide the James Potter's moral character. She unlocked the door, and stepped out into the hallway leading to the sixth year girls' dormitory.

"Is she out yet? Thank god!" Dorcas said, coming out of the dormitory and running to the toilet.

"Guess she had to pee." Alice said, and was rewarded with a small smile. She returned it, but then she frowned. "What's wrong with you? Ever since we've been back at Hogwarts, you've been acting strange. Did something happen over Christmas break?"

Lily sighed again. "Besides the usual torment from Petunia, no."

"It's Potter then."

Lily stared in awe at her friend. "How did you...?"

Alice laughed lightly. "Come Lily, give me some credit we've been friends for six years. I can read you like a book. I notice when you sigh a lot, and seem distant in my experience, it's because of your sister, or James Potter."

Lily laughed then. "You're right. I guess I am easy to read. Something did happen with James on the train."

Alice listened to her story. "So what?" She asked when it was finished.

"So what, what?" Lily asked, confused.

"What's wrong with that? You saved his life! You deserved a thank you!"

"Well it goes against everything that Potter is!" Lily cried, shocked that her friend hadn't seen what was wrong with the image of Potter apologizing. Potter apologizing! She could barely think it without wondering whether she crazy.

"What is Potter according to you?" Alice asked, a thoughtful expression on her face.

"You know! A filthy, arrogant, fat headed, dirty, bullying, little- did I say arrogant already? -toerag that thinks that he rules the school because he can fly on a broom!"

Alice laughed again.

"What do you think he's something else?" Lily asked, now horrified.

"No, what you said pretty much sums Potter up in my opinion, but Frank knows him better than I do, and he says that he's not such a bad guy if you get to know him."

"And you believe that?"

"Well one of you has to be wrong," Alice responded, putting her hands in her robes and looking directly into Lily's face.

"If only it were that simple." Lily groaned.

"Maybe it is." Was all Alice said.

James was lying on his bed, tracing the pattern of the canopy with his finger, when he was hit with a pillow.

"Come on Prongs you can't sit there dreaming all day." Sirius said. "You do have to eat."

James sighed and rolled over onto his side and faced his best friend. "I was thinking about Lily."

"Of course you were." Sirius muttered under his breath.

"What?"

"Nothing. You were saying?"

"I don't know how I feel about her."

Sirius chuckled. "Really? Because it seems pretty clear to the rest of the school how you feel about her. You're in love mate."

James glared at him.

"What? I'm just stating facts. You're the one that's asked her out three times a week since third year."

"That's the thing, I don't know if she even took all that seriously. Even I stopped knowing if I meant it or not, it just became a habit, but know it feels serious again. I feel like she's taking me seriously. Next time I ask her she may say yes."

"Then ask her out again."

"But I feel like if I do, she'll stop taking me seriously..."

Sirius looked at his friend incredulously. "When did you turn into a girl? You are a man. Men just go out into the world and do whatever feels right at the moment and regret it later! Go do something stupid!"

"That explains so much about your life Sirius." James said, and got smacked with another pillow.

"No that we've had our emotional crying moment, can we go down to the Great Hall? I'm starving."

Lily was walking back to the girl's dormitory alone after supper, for Alice had met with Frank. They had gone to do god knows what. Possibly snogging in the History of Magic classroom. She'd caught them there once before.

"Evans! Wait up!" A voice that was becoming all-to familiar called to her.

"Potter." She said as she turned around. "What are you stalking me?"

"I like to think of it as observing from a distance."

Lily rolled her eyes. "What do you think stalking means?" But, on the inside, she smiled despite herself. "What do you want Potter?"

James paused for a moment at Lily's question. What did he want? He made a mental note to kill Sirius the next time that he saw him.

"I was wondering if..."

"If you're going to ask me out again, I may have to kill you." Lily said, her green eyes looking fiercely into his hazel ones.

"I umm..." He then closed his mouth and looked at his shoes, and could feel the color rising to his cheeks. What was he supposed to do know? How come she had to be so infuriating?

Lily sighed. "Look James,"

James looked up surprised to hear her call him by his first name.

"At the moment I'm kind of torn. I think that you're nice, but also a bully."

Lily had no idea no why she was telling him this. It just sort of came out of her mouth of its own accord. "If you can prove to me that you're not a bully, then, ask me again. If you can't it's clear that that this was all just a joke to you." With that, she turned and walked quickly, tears that she couldn't stop and she didn't understand were slipping silently down her cheeks.

James stood frozen in the hallway, in complete shock. It was a long time before he was able to move.

A/N so there you have it! I know hat it's really raw, and could use A LOT more work, but please bear with me. Also forgive any grammatical errors, I really don't have time to fix them, if I want to get this posted.

Sorry to all the Snape fans that he was not in this chapter, I'll try to put him in the next one.

Review review review! (I have to beat my brother.)


	9. Chapter 9

A/N Okay, I know that it has been literally forever since I've updated, and trust me when I say I have no short list of excuses. I went on various trips, I've been swamped with homework, my laptop broke, I wrote half this chapter, then lost my flashdrive, and of course, I was also lazy. Since I still haven't found my flashdrive, I tried my best to rewrite this chapter, and I'm really, truely sorry if you've been waiting all this time, and you think that this sucks.I also know that this chapter is probably filled with mistakes, but hopefully you still find it enjoyable! Review!

Lily stared at the cold unbroken surface of the lake. She shivered and put her hands in her pockets. but she didn't really feel the cold; her mind was far away. Against her will, it kept drifting to James Potter. _Am I kidding myself if I think he'll change?_ She wondered. She kicked a rock, and ripples disrupted the quiet serenity of the water. She hated how much she hoped he would. It would be so much easier if she didn't care. She tried to convince herself that she didn't have any feelings whatsoever for Potter, but she knew she was decieving herself. She turned and headed back towards the castle, and ran into Alice along the way.

"Hey! I just came to find you,"Alice said, looking worridly into her friend's face. "It's almost time for dinner."

Lily nodded, thoughts still on Potter. "Yeah, I was just heading up towards the castle..."

Alice looked at her hard. "Lils, are you allright?"

Lily shook herself, and tried to focas on her best friend. "Yeah I'm fine. I've just been thinking..."

"About Potter." It wasn't a question.

Lily nodded. "Too much. Alice, why can't I stop thinking about him? It was so much simpler when I hated him. Why can't he just be a pigheaded git?"

Alice looked at her thoughtfully. "I don't think that you meant that."

Lily sighed. Of course she didn't mean it, but she wished with all her heart that she did. "I know. It's just so confusing. I thought I hated him. When he used to ask me to go out with him, I never for second even considered saying yes, but now I'm considering it all too much.!" Lily vented her feelings to Alice. "And," Her voice broke and she dropped to a wisper. "And I'm afraid that if he asks again I'll say yes."

Alice's mothering insticts took over, and she took her friend in her arms. "It's okay. Lils, it's okay. You just need time to sort out your feelings is all."

Lily nodded, grateful for her friend, and for the first time since the night before, her thoughts slipped away from James Potter, and it felt as though a huge wieght had been lifted from her chest.

James was sitting on the cold floor of the Astronomy tower. Surrounding him were the rest of the Marauders. Layed out before them was clean piece of parchment. Sirius and Peter were hunched over it, Sirius holding a quill in his hand. Remus was gazing intently at a copy of _Hogwarts; A History_. Strewn around the cold stones were other pieces of parchment covered in drawings and schematics.

"Oi! Prongs! How about a little help here, mate!" Sirius called, the quill hanging over parchment.

James shook himself. "Yeah, sure," he said, looking at his friends. "What portion of the castle are you working on?"

"We're trying to map out the passage behind the one eyed witch!" Peter answered excitedly.

"Shhh!" James and Sirius said at the same time.

Peter pouted slightly. 'C'mon, no one's going to hear me; we're at the top of the Astronomy tower for Merlins Sake!"

"Still, Wormtail!" James said. "You shouldn't go shouting one of our biggest secrets for anyone to hear! Someone could be just coming around that corner!"

'Next you'll be be telling Snivelly all about Moony's 'furry little problem!'"

Peter pouted again. "No one's going to come."

Remus snapped the book shut, "If may ask, why _are_ we doing this at the top of the Astonomy tower?"

"Barely anyone comes up here unless they have to." James said.

"Ha," Peter shputed, then shrank back at the look in Sirius's face.

"Still there are plebty of other places we could be doing this!" Remus said, shivering.

"The passage to Honeydukes, isn't lit, and lumus doesn't give us enough light, and the same with all the oth secret passages," Sirius made a point to wisper everything that he said, for Peter's benefit.

"The Gryffindor common room and the boy's dorometories are too public, so unless you want to hide out in Moaning Myrtle's stall, this is the best we could do!" James finished.

"Now, can we please get back to the one-eyed witch?" Sirius asked immpatiently. "Wormmy, if you'll do the honors,"

Peter cleared his throught. "I solemly swear, I'm up to no good!" He said, tapping his wand on the parchment. Slowly, a half-finished map began to scrawl itself across the page.

"Okay," Remus said. "Acording to this," he pointed to a map in _Hogwarts; A History_, (Which he had reopened) the statue should be right about here." He tapped the parchment.

Sirius nodded and very carefully he began to draw, looking intently at a certain piece of parchment then copying it carefully onto the big piece.

"What's that?" Peter asked, squinting his eyes and tilting his head slightly.

Sirius whapped him on the back of the head. "It's the one-eyed witch!"

"It doesn't look like the one-eyed witch," Peter said, rubbing the back of his head.

Remus stared at the picture for a second then turned to Sirius and said: "You know, he's got a point, mate. It doesn't look much like the one-eyed witch."

"You're welcome to draw it!" Sirius said irritably.

James sighed, and left them to arguing. His mind wandered. To give him some credit, he didn't start off by thinking of Lily, but of course, eventually his brain, as it always did, stumbled upon the topic. How could he make her like him? His mind was blank. _His_ mind! The genious behind the Marauder's pranks, (though Sirius would have something to say about that) was blank. He was the smartest, cleverest student in the school, (once again, Sirius could agrue about that fact,) and yet on something that seemed, on paper so simple, he had no idea what to do. To be fair, James wasn't used to having to impress a girl to get her. If a girl didn't immediately fall into his arms, he had never cared enough to try to get her, in his opinoin, it wasn't worth it. Besides, if he wanted a quick shag, more then half the girls in the school would be willing. But this, this, was something completely different. This was Lily Evans, and for once the school playboy _did_ care enough to try.

"Oi! Prongs!" Sirius shouted once again. "Snap out of it!"

James closed off all the thoughts of Lily. "What?" He asked.

His best friend stared at him for a second. "Nothing." He muttered, and bent his head back over the parchment.

After a few more hours of working on the thing that they called 'the Maraders Map' the four trouble-makers left the Atronomy tower for the boy's dorometory.

The next morning, James woke up tired. All night long he had been plauged with nightmares that he could no longer remember. He managed to get out of bed and make it down to the great hall for breakfast. Through his scrambled eggs and suesage, he could see a pair of big emerald eyes following his every move. All through the meal, James squirmed, trying to find a position that blocked him from those eyes. (Which was ironic, because for the past three years, he had been trying to sit in a place where those eyes would be visible to him.)

Remus chuckled as he noticed how uncomfortable his friend looked. "Se really got to you, mate," he said.

Sirius looked up from oggling a blonde Ravenclaw. He snorted into his pumpkin juice as he saw James' trouble.

Peter also looked up from his heaped plate. He, didn't catch on as quickly as the others. "What?" He asked. Looking from one of his friends to another.

"Prongs has a little 'Evans' problem," Sirius said, snorting again, but never taking his eyes from his friend.

Peter's face turned towards the redhead. She saw him looking at her, and her cheeks became as rosy as her hair. She quickly dropped her head.

James sighed. "Thanks, mate," he sighed.

"What the hell did she tell you the other night?" Remus asked, mildly concerned.

"Nothing." James muttered, his cheeks were reddening al well.

Sirius looked seriously concerned. He narrowed his eyes. "You're sure you're all right?" He asked.

"Yeah" James said, still muttering. "I've got to go." With that he stood and left the great hall.

Sirius's face darkened.

Lily didn't see James leave. She hadn't dared to look anywhere near where the Marauders were sitting, after Peter had caught her staring at James. She felt her cheeks reddening by just thinking about it. She was immensly relieved when the meal was over. As she was leaving, someone grabbed her arm. She turned expecting to James, or worse, Sev, but to her surprise, it was Sirius. She was also surprised by the dark expression in his eyes.

"I need to talk to you," he said quietly.

Once again, Lily was surprised, but she turned to Alice. "I'll be back in a moment."

Alice looked at her worridly, but didn't say anything.

"What the hell are you doing?" Sirius asked as soon as they were in a derserted classroom.

Lily was taken aback. "What?" She asked.

"Why are you leading James on like this?" He elaberated.

"I don't know what mean," Lily answered hesitantly, frightened by the rage in his eyes.

"You don't know him. You don't know how much it hurts him every time you tell him 'no'!" He was shouting.

Lily felt the rage the rage boiling in hre as well. "So I should just say 'yes' so I can spare his feeling! So that James Potter can rest assured that he can have any girl in the school!"

Sirius snarled angrily. "If you don't want to go out with him, whatever, but don't lead him on like this, so he thinks he has a chance! Make up your fucking mind! Either you like him or you don't!"

Lily blinked. "What makes you so sure that I'm just leading him on?" she asked quietly.

That stopped Sirius for a second. He paused, it seemed he had never considered this. He didn't have an answer.

Lily turned to leave, but Sirius grapped her arm. "Next time say 'yes'. Please." Then he walked past her and left her standing there, staring after him.

A/N So there you have it! Chapter 9! Horribly, terribly, dreadfuly, and many other negative adjectives, late, but I promise to get the next one up soon.

FYI: My fingers are fueled by reviews, so the more you review the faster I can type, so, please, please, please review! (I'll give you candy) :)


	10. Chapter 10

A/N So, I have nothing to say besides apologizing on the lateness of this chapter, (As always) and to confide you in something. So, as I was reading fanfics the other day, I realized that I am sort of a hypocrite; my author notes are usually longer, and I found that I hate longer notes. I usually just skip over them. Keeping this in mind, I have decided to try to make my notes shorter. Of course this one is already longer than I intended it to be. Oh well, you sure aren't reading this to hear me comment on random things, you of course came here to read about our favorite couple. So besides begging you to review, (I'm totally on my knees here guys) I don't have anything more to say. So I present whatever chapter number this is! (This is also a longer chapter so please enjoy!)

S. Really sorry about all the mistakes in the last chapter. I didn't have to go over it very well before I had to post it, but this one should be setter.

P.P.S. Sorry, this has a Quidditch match scene, and I didn't write it very well. If you find it boring and want to skip over it, I don't blame you, but it was necessary for the Lily/James relationship.

Though it had been almost a week Lily was still shaken by her encounter with Sirius Black, but she couldn't pretend that she didn't see his reasons. He was Potter's friend, and as a friend he was concerned, but that still didn't mean that she was leading Potter on. Truthfully, she wasn't sure what she was doing as far as He was concerned. Still, maybe Sirius was right. No matter how much she might think he deserved it, (or used to think it) she wasn't one of the girls who hurt people intentionally even if the person in question was a git. Well the best thing was not to think about him. _Yeah.__Like__that__was__possible._

James, on the other hand, was happily thinking Lily-free thoughts. Instead his mind was filled with Quidditch. The next Gryffindor match was almost there. Everyone in the four houses were talking nonstop about. It was widely agreed that this would probably be the defining match for the cup. Gryffindor was playing Ravenclaw, their only real competition. Right now the standings put Gryffindor ahead by only twenty points. That could easily change in this match.

Gryffindor hadn't won the cup for four years, since before James was on the team. This year was going to be different. He was captain. He would lead Gryffindor to victory. No one in the house doubted this. No one in the school doubted this. Despite the fact that Ravenclaw had a superb team this year, Gryffindor was by far the favorite to win the cup. Still, the fans were about split down the middle. Obviously, the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors were rooting for themselves. The other two houses, still rooted for their teams when they played, but had given up hope in the long run, they so far behind the other two. Instead they chose different houses to root for. The Slytherins, out of their hatred for Gryffindor were rooting for Ravenclaw. Hufflepuff mainly rooted for Gryffindor. With the fan base split like this, more than a few fights had broken out, and Madam Pomfrey had her hands full of the numerous hex and jinx victims that kept pouring into the hospital wing. This could not dampen the mood of the students though.

Gryffindor house was anxiously awaiting the arrival of the match. James was to be seen frantically creating tactics and strategies to insure that they won, in the corner of the common room. He was often guarded by various members of the team to insure that his 'fan club' didn't bother him while he was doing something so crucially important. _I__wish__that__I__could__have__this__much__peace__when__I'm__trying__to__do__my__homework._James thought to himself, enjoying the time spent without his fan club sitting next to him, clinging to his arms, and generally hanging on every word he said.

"I see you're enjoying yourself," Sirius told his friend, pushing through the Quidditch team.

"Yep." James answered, still studying different maneuvers the Ravenclaw team commonly used, and how to counter them.

They both sat in silence for a few minutes before Sirius, growing restless, once again started to speak. "So, have you found a way to beat them yet?" He asked, gesturing to the pieces of parchment that were strewn across the table.

James didn't answer.

Sirius sighed, but realized that it was quite pointless to try and induce conversation out of his friend, so silence once again fell over the two, before Sirius left.

James watched his friend go, and was somewhat relived. _Now__I__might__be__able__to__get__some__work__done,_ he thought, head bending back over the table, but no, it was not meant to be, for a certain redhead just entered the common room. _No!_ He told himself sternly. _You__don't__have__time__to__think__about__Evans!_ He purposely used her surname, not that it had the desired effect. _The__match__is__in__twelve__hours!_ He argued mentally with himself, but alas, hormones don't listen to logic. Though Quidditch may have been able to banish thoughts of Lily from his mind briefly, they were no match for her when she was standing so close by. Realizing that he was going to get nothing more done that night, he rolled up the piece of parchment that he had been writing on, and turned to head to head towards the boys' dormitories. Big mistake. The second he breeched the protective line that the Quidditch team had formed around him, he was swarmed by his fan club.

Girls ran over to hug him and tell him that he was going to great tomorrow. Within seconds, the way to the dormitories and peace was blocked by at least twenty girls. James blinked and adjusted his glasses. How were there so many of him? His fan club usually consisted of about seven girls, or eight at the most, but twenty? Had they multiplied over night? His musings were interrupted as the girls started to swarm him. He started to back up, but tripped over the table, and went sprawling to the floor. A hand reached down to help him up. He took it reluctancy. He wondered which girl it belonged to, and if she thought that helping him up would count as 'holding hands.'

"Need help Potter?"

James looked up, surprised when he was met with Lily's red hair and warm green eyes. A blush flew to his cheeks. "Thanks," he muttered.

Lily nodded.

James paused a second, then turned to push his way through the mob of girls that was now writhing with envy at the redhead who had gotten the great honor of helping him to his feet.

"Oh, and Potter," Lily said, and James turned back to look at her. "Good luck tomorrow."

He looked surprised again, but nodded to her, before continuing to push through the girls.

Lily kicked herself inwardly. What had she been thinking? Maybe Sirius was right about her, that she was just leading James on. She didn't know if she had feelings for him, all she knew was that her hatred was morphing into something else. Right now, it was still without shape. What it would stay as was completely up to James at this point. If proved he could be a good guy, it might be friendship, or maybe even something more. Or, if he stayed the same pig headed git that he had always been, well the hatred would be just that. Hatred. Satisfied with the answer that she had given herself, Lily follows James' example and went to bed as well.

James woke up early, having been plagued all night by unwanted dreams. He swung his legs onto the floor and sat on his bed for a second. He searched his bedside table for his glasses, and shoved them onto his nose. He looked out the window and saw that it was still dark, but the queasiness in his stomach told him that he wouldn't be getting back to sleep anytime soon. He sighed. He could barely remember the last time he had been nervous for a Quidditch match. It had to have been years at least. But then again, in all the time that he had been playing at Hogwarts, Gryffindor had never been this close to the cup, and he was determined to get it.

Well there was no point in lazing around. If he wasn't going to sleep, he might as well get up. He slid off his bed and grabbed his robes. He quickly pulled them over his head. He took his father's invisibly cloak out as well. Technically, there was no rule at Hogwarts limiting how early you could get up, but James didn't want to spend hours arguing about that to Filch, so after some brief consideration, he wrapped the cloak around himself before exiting the boys' dormitory.

He silently creeped through the portrait of the fat lady, who was still fast asleep. Once outside the Gryffindor common room, James realized that he didn't know where in the world he was going. Well, it was never too early to check the conditions on the Quidditch field.

Lily woke up much later, but she too had been haunted by dreams. She groaned and rolled over, trying to get back to sleep, but the rest of he girls in the dormitory had different ideas. Dorcas and Mary were both whooping and trying to charm each other's hair to make it red. Alice was more resigned, but she too was getting ready for the Quidditch match. Once she saw that her friend was awake, she hurried over to Lily's bed.

"C'mon, get up!" She cried. "You don't want to miss the match!"

Lily groaned in response.

Alice dropped her voice to a whisper. "You don't want to miss Potter!" She said, giggling.

Lily threw a pillow at her.

Alice laughed again, and ducked, clearly glad that she had gotten a response out of her friend. "I thought that that would get you're attention! Now, Come on, we don't want to miss breakfast."

Lily sighed, but got up. There really was no point in trying to sleep with all the noise anyway. Plus her pillow was lying on the ground about ten feet away from her bed.

As they entered the great hall, Lily felt under-dressed. She had worn her gold and red striped Gryffindor scarf, but when she saw the sea of red and blue that greeted her, she realized that she was going to need a lot more team spirit to blend in with this crowd.

"Wow. I guess the school is getting into the match," Alice commented unnecessarily.

Lily nodded.

The two friends had no trouble finding places to sit among the crowd, for everyone was gathered around the Quidditch team. They ate quickly, and in no time, it was nine o' clock. Time for the match to begin.

Lily wrapped her scarf tighter around her neck as she climbed to the stands. Fans chatted amiably, but there was a tension in the air. Everyone was on the edge of their seats waiting for the players to emerge from the locker rooms.

"Do you think we'll win?" Alice asked, somewhat anxiously.

Lily almost laughed at how concerned her friend appeared to be, but she answered confidently. "Definitely, we have the better team by far!" If there was one thing that Jam- _Potter_ she reminded herself. If there was one thing that Potter had a right to arrogant about, it was his skill on the Quidditch field. He was an amazing Quidditch player, and an even better leader. With him as captain, Lily didn't think that there was any way that Gryffindor could lose this match.

Alice nodded. "I hope-" she was cut off as cheers filled the audience. The Gryffindor team was stepped onto the field. Some boos could barely be made out over on the Slytherin side of the stands, but the Gryffindors quickly blocked them out by shouting even louder.

Lily found herself joining in the cheers as well.

James paused a moment to polish his glasses. He was freezing standing out in the January air, but his mind didn't even register the fact. He was focused utterly and completely on Quidditch he didn't hear the cheering crowd behind him.

He only started to register his surrounding when Madam Hooch called out, "Captains, shake hands!"

James moved woodenly to the center of the Quidditch pitch where he met with the Ravenclaw captain. She was a tall seventh year girl. She smiled good-naturedly at him. He was too out of it to anything but reach for her hand. she took, and they shook. Slowly they both walked back to their teams.

"Mount your brooms!" Madam Hooch called to the two opposing sides.

James swung his leg over his Cleansweep 5. Madam Hooch blew a long piecing note on her silver whistle, and with a kick, they were in the air.

James immediately grabbed the Quaffle and scored before the Ravenclaw keeper was even in place. Gryffindor received ten points. James immediately flew halfway back across the pitch to intercept a pass made by a Ravenclaw chaser. He passed it to another chaser and Gryffindor scored again.

And so match began in earnest. Ravenclaw scored a point quickly after that, pulling the score up to 10 to 20.

After almost an hour, the crowd was getting restless. There hadn't been a single sighting of the snitch yet. The scores of both teams were pretty close. It was 70 to 90, Ravenclaw in the lead. And so the game continued. Almost as soon as one team would score a goal, the other team would score as well, keeping them neck and neck.

"Pass! Pass!" James yelled to a fellow Gryffindor chaser as he flew by. He heeded James' advice, and soon the Quaffle was flying in the air towards James. He caught it cleanly and accelerated towards the goal posts. The Ravenclaw chaser who had been tailing the person who passed to James, looked confused for a moment before they realized what had happened. She zoomed after James, but it was too late; he had scored.

"THAT BRINGS THE SCORE TO, 120 TO 110! GRYFFINDOR IN THE LEAD!" The announcer boomed to the fans. Great cheers erupted from the Gryffindor side off the stands, echoed by boos from Ravenclaw.

_Yes!_James thought. _Now__if__only__Spinnet__could__catch__that__snitch,__we__'__d__win__the__cup__for__sure!_But, the game continued with no snitch.

When a well-aimed bludger by Sirius Black injured Ravenclaw's best chaser, Ravenclaw fell far behind. Gryffindor was easily beating them by fifty points... then by eighty... then by a hundred... a hundred twenty. Soon Ravenclaw's only hope was to catch the snitch, and end the game, and gain themselves an extra 150 points.

Gryffindor was now 140 points in the lead. Just two more goals and it wouldn't matter if Ravenclaw caught the snitch!

The crowd gasped, because both seekers had rocketed into a simultaneous dive. It was impossible to tell which one would reach the snitch first, when suddenly out of nowhere, a bludger smashed into the Gryffindor seeker. James gasped. The Ravenclaw seeker pulled ahead. Suddenly James realized what he was doing. He was hovering in the middle of the pitch with the Quaffle tucked under his arm! He could easily score a point now as everyone was s focussed on the seekers! He could tie the game! One more point was all he needed to get. All of these thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant. He zoomed towards the goal posts when, he caught sight of the Gryffindor seeker.

Her name was Alexis Spinnet, and she was a small fourth year. Right now, her tiny frame was barely hanging onto her broom. She looked dazed. James saw as one of her hands let go. She was about to fall off. He whipped his head around, trying to see if someone would help her, but the rest of the team was too far away. Only he was close enough. He glanced at the Ravenclaw seeker, his hand was stretched, his fingers splayed apart. James only had seconds to make his decision. He could tie the match, or he could save a teammate. _What__would__Lily__do?_ He wondered briefly. Damn. He knew what he had to do. He dropped the Quaffle.

James caught Alexis as she fell from her broom.

"CORNER HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH!" The announcer yelled, referring to the Ravenclaw seeker. "RAVENCLAW WINS!"

Lily watched the whole affair from her spot in the stands. She gasped as James flew to the rescue of Alexis Spinnet. She was surprised. She thoroughly had expected him to save the match. _Maybe__he__has__changed,_ she thought. She felt a different emotion. Was it... jealously? _No,__no._ She decided. And of course, what did she have to be jealous of, almost falling to her death? _Or,__landing__in__James__Potter__'__s__arms?_ Said an annoying little voice in her head.

A/N So there you have it. Chapter 10. I apologize again for the painful Quidditch scene, (there's really no other way to describe it) but it was necessary. I promise that the next chapter will have more James/Lily action. Please, review! I don't care if you hated it, tell me that! Tell me anything about it that you want! I really want to get to 30 reviews, and that's only 2 more, so if you're reading this haven't reviewed yet, (Or if you have and want to review again) please do so!


	11. Chapter 11

A/N Sorry for the lateness of this chapter. I wrote the first chapter to another Harry Potter fanfic. It's about Neville and his last year at Hogwarts. I f you might be interested in reading it, it's called Neville's Seventh Year. Please check it out and review. Also, sorry about the way the thoughts last chapter didn't have any spaces, I'm pretty sure that I've explained this before, but the format screwed up when I posted it.

James slunk away from the pitch when all the Ravenclaw supporters rushed to congratulate their victorious team. He didn't want to hear them celebrating.

He quietly crept through the deserted hallways. When the school started returning from the match, he returned to the Gryffindor common room.

"You know it wasn't your fault," Remus told him, once the common room had emptied some.

"Yeah, sure." James muttered, refusing to look at his friend.

"Why would it be James' fault?" Peter asked, thoroughly confused. He like the rest of the school had been watching the seekers, not the Gryffindor captain.

Remus gave him a look that said shut up. "You did the right thing, mate."

James gave a humorless laugh. "Yeah, isn't that ironic. The one time I do the right thing, I feel like shit afterwards."

Remus gave a frustrated sigh; if James didn't feel like being comforted, there was little anyone, even one of his three best friends could do.

"What happened?" Peter asked again.

James, who didn't feel like hearing the answer, got up, and turned to leave, but Sirius caught his arm.

"Remember, it's the full moon tonight," he said.

James nodded, and continued.

Remus looked subdued at the mention of the moon.

Peter, who realized that his question wasn't going to get answered anytime soon pouted.

James lay on his bed for a long time. Lost in thoughts, he stared at the curtains that surrounded him for hours. He only got up as the sun faded to a button-sized dot on the horizon, and tendrils of moon light began to worm their way through the windows of the boy's dormitory. It was time. He slowly sat up. With robotic-like jerks, he pulled a heap of shimmering fabric from his suitcase. His invisibility cloak. He headed down the stairs back to the common room. It was empty besides two figures standing by the exit. Sirius and Peter. By this time, Madam Pomfrey must have smuggled him out through the secret passage under the womping willow.

"Hey," James said when he reached them.

Sirius looked at his friend in concern. "Are you all right,?" He asked hesitantly.

"Yeah." James said hurriedly.

Sirius stared at him with a suspicious look, but truly, James did look alright, and he sounded well enough... Sirius shrugged. "Well then, let's get going."

James and Peter gave him curt nods. In a swift motion, James covered the three of them with the cloak. They barely fit under it. As it was, Sirius still had to crouch. Thank goodness Peter was so small.

It was slow going. They had to shuffle awkwardly in order for all of them to remain out of sight. Just as they reached the grans staircase, James heard footsteps. He held a hand to stop the others.

"What is it?" Sirius whispered, annoyed.

James put a finger to his lips. "Footsteps," he mouthed to the others. He reached into his pocket for the Marauders' map. It was empty. James looked down, and with a jolt he realized that he was still wearing his Quidditch robes. "Damn it. I left the map in the dormitory," he whispered hurriedly, glancing around to make sure that no one was around to hear them. "I'll go and get it." He started to slip out old the cloak, but Peter grabbed the back of his robes.

"But Prongs, Filtch'll catch you!"

"Course he won't. Besides, you guys need to get to Moony. He needs you there for him."

Sirius nodded, seeing the logic in what James was saying. "Come on, Wormtail. We have an appointment to keep."

Wordlessly, Peter let go of James.

Dodging prefects was easy, James had been doing it since he was a first year. Avoiding Filtch on the other hand. Despite he had been doing it just as long, it was a skill that no one could truly master. You could get the hang of it, but never quite conquer it. You mostly had to move silently and hope for the best. And then there was Peeves. He was even worse than Filtch, just because he was unpredictable. Sometimes he would call Filtch, and others he would just laugh, jeer, and possibly hurl a couple of stinkpellots at you.

Tonight, James had no major problems in returning to the common room. When he entered however, he was surprised to find that it was no longer empty. A group of fourth years were sitting around the fire. When they say him, they started to giggle, but to his relief, they sprang quickly up the staircase to the girl's dormitory. All but one. James recognized her immediately. It was Alexis Spinnet, the Gryffindor seeker.

"Hey," she said, coming over to him.

"Hey." He returned quickly. He glanced at his watch. He really needed to get to Remus.

"I just wanted to..." Alexis looked a little intimidated, but she took a steadying breath, and continued to speak. "I wanted to thank you for saving me on the pitch." It came out in a rush.

"Oh," James was a little surprised. "Well, your welcome. I'm the captain; I look out for my team."

She nodded once. "Well, I'm glad for that." As she walked by him, she kissed his cheek. Very lightly. So lightly James thought that he might be imagining things. He shook his head, and went up to the boy's dormitory.

James quickly grabbed the map from the bottom of his trunk. At least if he didn't have the cloak of invisibility, he could see who was wandering around the castle. At least in the half of the castle that they had finished.

Thanks to the map, James encountered no one in the beginning of the journey to the grounds. He wasn't so lucky later.

James' bent his head in order to study the map more closely. To his horror he saw that Filtch was heading his way. He frantically looked around for a room he could duck into. There was nothing. A glance back at the parchment in his hand told James that Filtch was getting closer. Yes, now James could hear the heavy footsteps getting closer and closer.

"James! Over here!"

James turned at the sound of a voice. It sounded like... but it couldn't be! Why would she be helping him?

"Potter!" A small figure appeared from behind a thick tapestry that hung on the stone walls. A figure with coppery-red hair.

James was sure that he was dreaming. Why was Lily helping him escape Filtch? Shouldn't she be punishing him? Well, if was a dream, James wasn't going to waste it. He quickly followed Lily through a door that was hidden behind the tapestry.

They came out into a small room. It was plain. There was a desk and a chair, but no other furnishings.

"Where are we?" James asked.

Lily turned away. What was she doing? Helping Potter get away from Filtch! When did she suddenly decide to become the biggest trouble maker in the school's partner in crime? She was a prefect for Merlin's sake! _You did it because it's the full moon._ A voice in her head said.

Of its own accord, her mind fled back to Severus's theory about the least annoying Marauder.

"They sneak out at night. There's something weird about that does he keep going?" Snape had said.

"He's ill," she had stated. She may not defend Potter, but Lupin was good. "They say he's ill-"

"Every month at the full moon?" said Snape.

"I know your theory," she had said coldly.

At the time, she thought that he had only be trying to change the subject from his friends and their practice of Dark Magic. Now, standing here with Potter, she was almost certain that Snape had been right about at least one thing.

"Evans?" Potter asked when she didn't respond to his question. "Lily?"

The sound of her name broke Lily from the trance she had slipped into. "Wh- what?" She asked.

James frowned at her. "Lily, are you all right?"

He started towards her, and Lily suddenly felt overwhelmingly tired. She collapsed on the chair. "Filtch is probably gone by now. You should go. Lupin."

James' mind was racing. How could she possibly know about Lupin! He hesitated, checking his watch. It was getting late. Remus would be almost all the way transformed by now. Finally, he simply said, "Thanks," and disappeared into the winding corridors.

Lily watched him go. She knew that he had to, but it still made her a little sad to see him go.

Quietly she climbed the staircase to Gryffindor tower, not caring the technically she still had half an hour of patrol duty left. She was too tired tonight. As she slipped into the girl's dormitory, she glanced out the window. In the darkness of the night, she saw a white stag running across the grounds. She shook her head. When she looked again, it was gone. Perhaps she hallucinating with weariness, but something, an instinct, told her that she wasn't.

A/N There it is! Please please review! Also if you have time check out my other story.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N this one's actually on time! Technically, it's before time, but I'm sick and don't have anything to do besides write, so you guys get 2 chapters in 2 days! So, I don't really have anything to say besides that PD almost has 50 reviews! If you are reading this, please review so we can make that number!

James groaned as he sat up in bed. He was sore everywhere. It didn't help that he had only gotten about two hours of sleep. Roaming the Hogwarts grounds all night as a stag was fine, but the next morning was bound to be hell. Well, at least he didn't have any classes today since it was Sunday.

Sirius came bounding into the dormitory then. How he could be so awake, James had no idea.

"C'mon mate, time to get up!" Sirius called.

James groaned again and rolled over. This did nothing to detour his friend. Sirius came over to his bed. "Oi! Prongs!"

Knowing that there was nothing he could do to persuade Sirius to leave, James slowly got out of bed. "How the hell do you look so good?" he muttered, looking from Sirius' neat robes to his own that were wrinkled since he had slept in them, being too tired to change the night before.

His friend laughed. "I have been up for an hour."

James wasn't surprised. Sirius never really slept. Probably something to do with his childhood. James had never brought it up, and Sirius had never offered any information on the subject.

"I've also been to see Moony." Sirius said, all humor gone from his face.

This perked James up a little. "How's he doing?"

Sirius sighed. "He's tired of course. Besides that he says he's fine, but you know Moony. He'd say he was fine if he had a gaping hole in his chest that was pouring blood."

James winced at the thought, remembering his own injury to the chest.

"Sorry," Sirius said, seeing and understanding the look on James' face. "Forgot about that. Well, let's wake up Wormtail and head down to breakfast."

James sighed, but followed his friend. Every movement sent a dull, thudding pain through his limbs.

Madam Pomfrey deemed Remus well enough to eat breakfast with the rest of the school, so to James', Sirius', and Peter's surprise, he was sitting at the Marauder's usual spot, reading the newest edition of the Daily Prophet.

"I can't believe she let you out the morning after you transformed." Sirius stated, piling his plate full of food.

Remus chuckled a bit. "Well apparently, for the past year my transformations have been getting 'surprisingly easier' on my body," he said innocently.

James and Sirius laughed. Peter seemed confused. He opened his mouth as if he were about to ask for clarification, but then thought better of it.

Remus then turned to James. "Why weren't you with Sirius and Peter when they arrived?" He had a concerned expression on his face.

Sirius answered for James. "He forgot the map. Had to go back for it." He then turned to James. "Took you long enough, did you run into Peeves or something?"

James stopped eating and contemplated how to answer the question. Until that moment, he had successfully not thought of his strange encounter with Lily. She definitely knew about Remus' "furry little problem." Should he tell the rest of the Marauder's that she knew? He knew the answer to that question. Of course he had to tell them, especially Remus. If anyone besides them knew about Remus' condition, he deserved to know. "I ran into Lily, he started, but was interrupted before he could finish.

"Well that would have delayed him." Sirius said, chuckling.

"What did she do when she caught you out of bed?" Peter asked, joining the conversation for the first time.

"Nothing," James answered, then stared at his friends' incredulous expressions. He didn't blame them. It was so unlike Lily. "In fact, she helped me get away from Filtch."

At that, Remus actually choked on his breakfast, and Peter had to hit him repeatedly on the back before he could talk. "She what?" Remus gasped out.

"She helped me get away from Filtch." James repeated. "She showed me a secret room hidden behind a tapestry. Speaking of which, we'll have to add that to the map." He said thoughtfully.

"Why?" Peter asked, his eyes wide.

"Well because the map is of all Hogwarts, hidden rooms included." James responded, knowing he was being annoying but not really caring.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "What Wormy meant was why did Lily save your arse?"

James sighed. "She knows."

She knows... what?" Remus asked.

James blinked. "I don't know exactly. She knows about... Moony. She knows or suspects that we're doing something to er help his transformations. I think."

All three boys stared at James, their mouths gaping. Sirius was the first to regain his composure. "You think? James, this isn't something you can't not be absolute positive about. Does she or does she not?"

James thought back. "I'm not sure,"

"James," Sirius started, but James cut him off.

"She said: 'You should go; Lupin,'"

Sirius sighed. "That could mean anything. Maybe she thought that you had sneaked out to visit Remus while he was ill in the hospital wing."

James blinked again. Of course, that made much more sense. Why had he assumed that she was knew? There was something about the way that she had said it. Something in her voice. He couldn't quite tell what it was, but he was still convinced that she knew the truth. "I don't think she would have helped me get away from Filtch if she thought that I was only going to visit Remus in the hospital wing," he said carefully.

Sirius nodded. "True enough. So what are we going to do about this?"

"We still don't know for sure if she knows," Peter said hopefully.

"You know, we could always just go and ask her about it," Remus suggested.

Sirius shook his head. "What would we say: Hey Evans, do you know that Remus turns into a wolf once a month at the full moon?"

James rolled his eyes. "We would be more discreet than that. We could find a way."

Lily could barely keep her eyes open. She had been up all night, thinking about the incident with Potter. Now, she couldn't explain what had come over her. Maybe she had been so tired that she wasn't thinking straight. Now that it was morning, Snape's theory seemed absurd to her again. She could think of about fifty more plausible reasons why Potter would be roaming the halls at night. Besides, even if his friend was a werewolf, why would James be going out? He wasn't that stupid. He would of known that Remus wouldn't be able to recognize him. That Remus would just attack him like anyone else. No, it wasn't a plausible theory at all. And yet, the night before, she'd been so sure. So sure that James was going to somehow help his friend.

But then, Remus had been ill last night again. Alice had told her. He had supposedly spent the night in the hospital wing. It had been the full moon last night. Maybe, just maybe Snape had been right. Though she hated to admit it, for the past few months she had been watching Remus carefully. He did get ill a lot. At every full moon. With every month, she expected the record to break, but it didn't. Was it possible that he was a werewolf?

Then a different memory entered her mind. It was of the beautiful white stag that she had seen. She wasn't sure how that could possibly be connected at all with Remus' possible condition, but it seemed somehow important to her. Like it was the missing piece of some puzzle of which she didn't yet know the full picture.

She snuck a glance towards the Marauder's, but to her surprise they had already left.

Soon, Lily finished her breakfast, and left for the Gryffindor common room, only to be corned in the hallway by Potter.

"Evans, I need to talk to you," he said.

Lily felt the blood rise to her cheeks at the sound of his voice. Well she was going to have to face him at some point. She slowly turned around. "What do you want, Potter?" She asked, irritably.

He looked a little taken aback at the harshness of her words. "I wanted to ask you about last night."

She sighed. "That was a one time thing. Next time you're out of bed, I'll let Filtch catch you." It sounded lame even to her ears, but she couldn't think of any explanation of why she had acted as she did.

James frowned, but continued. "No it's not that. When you told me to go, you said 'Lupin' afterwards, I was wondering why."

She had no idea how to answer that. Should she ask Potter whether Remus was a werewolf, and risk sounding incredibly stupid if she was wrong, or should she just say that she had heard about Remus' illness? It was somewhat of a risk, but she was somewhat sure. Besides, what should she care what James Potter thought of her? She held her chin up, daring him to laugh at her. "It was the full moon last night." She said simply.

James swore and kicked the stone wall.

_Well_, Lily thought. There's my answer. _Guess Remus is a werewolf. Snape was right about one thing after all._

James turned to Lily and asked in a hollow voice, "How did you find out? Did you just notice that he always got sick at the full moon?"

Lily sighed. "No. Someone suggested the idea to me. At first I didn't believe it, but then..."

"Who?"

"Snape."

James didn't know who he was expecting, but it wasn't Snape, but when Lily said his name, it all made sense. Of course Snape would've noticed. No matter what the Marauder's gave him credit for, Snape was very clever. He looked at Lily. "Please, don't tell anyone. Not even Snape."

"Of course," Lily replied. "It isn't my secret to tell."

A/N There it is! Please tell me whether or not you liked it! Let's get to 50 reviews!


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N Sorry about how long it took to post this chapter. (Yeah I know it's been over a month I'm a horrible person blah blah blah.) Before I let you guys read this chapter I have a few things to say. First, sorry for the typos in the last chapter (I misspelled Filch) thanks for pointing those out to me. I usually double check that I'm spelling all the names right, but that one just slipped my mind. Second, a lot of readers have been confused about why I made James a chaser. I spent a long time researching that before I put it in the story. As far as I can tell, J K Rowling released in an interview that James was a chaser. This surprised many people as the movies made him out to be a seeker. I was confused by this too, so I just thought I'd post it. That ends this long authors note, so here is the next chapter!**

**P.S. This is just kinda a filler chapter so bear with me, I'm working up to the big finale of their Sixth year!**

James stayed in the corridor after Lily left. He was in no hurry to tell the rest of the Marauders that someone besides themselves knew about Remus' 'furry little problem.' Especially if that person was (or used to be) friends with Snape. James trusted Lily not to tell anybody, but he knew that the rest might not. Well Remus would, he saw the best in everyone, Peter would agree with whatever James or Sirius told him, but Sirius... James didn't know how Sirius would react. His best friend was a good person, but he never trusted anyone outside their little group. James always figured that it had something to do with Sirius' childhood, but he had never pushed the matter. Sirius' family was one of the few tabooed subjects among the Marauders. James sighed. Well, he was going to have to face them at some point, so it might as well be now. At least they could get this sorted out quickly and move on. Hopefully. James turned back great hall, slowly dragging his feet, he headed towards the inevitable.

Soon he was back at the Gryffindor table with the rest of the Marauders.

To his surprise, even Sirius took the news in stride. Still, it wasn't good.

"Well she's smart, We knew that someone would find it out eventually," Remus said, trying to improve the uneasy tension. All the Marauders nodded. It could have been a lot worse as far people discovering a potentially devastating secret.

"Yeah," Sirius agreed, again surprising James. "Lily is definitely better than say, Snape."

Damn. James thought, he had yet to tell them who originally put the idea in Lily's mind. "About Snape..."

Sirius snapped his head around. "Please tell me that you're not going to say that Snape knows as well!"

James looked down before answering. "Well I don't think he knows exactly... more like he just suspects."

Sirius' fists clenched. "How the hell did he find out?"

"Well, there is only so much you can do to cover up the fact that I disappear once a month at the full moon." Remus said. "Anyone observant would have noticed. And, if anyone hates us as much as Snape does, they're bound to be observant."

Peter nodded, agreeing with the third Marauder.

"Yeah, but then the entire Slytherin house might hate us, if for no other reason, James always kicks their arses at Quidditch," Sirius commented.

At that, all four Marauders glanced around suspiciously, wondering who else in the school knew their secret.

"I'm actually surprised that no one noticed before now," Remus stated.

The other three stared at him. "Why?" Peter finally asked.

"Well like I said, there's only so much that we can cover up. I mean you guys found out in a year. Others were bound to find out in six."

"Yeah, but we're you're best friends. Plus, I'm Sirius Black, and he's James Potter!"

Remus rolled his eyes at his friend's obvious vanity. "Oh and you're such geniuses."

Sirius grinned. "Yes we are. Thanks for noticing mate!" He then slapped Remus' back, laughing, before his features turned somber once again. "So do you think that other people do know?" He asked Remus.

Remus sighed. "There's really no way of telling. I don't think that anyone else knows. But we're still lucky that it was Lily and not Snape who found out for sure. We'll definitely need to think of a way of hiding it more."

The other's nodded in agreement.

Lily's mind was reeling. She thought that she was prepared for confirmation that Remus was a werewolf, but it still had surprised her. Was it safe for him to go to Hogwarts?where did he... change? What happened if he bit someone? No. Lily pushed these questions from her mind. If he had been changing for six years and no accidents happened, then they must have some safe plan in place. Lily refused to treat Remus differently because of this. She had endured years of Slytherins (And occasionally others) calling her 'mudblood.' She knew what it was like to be discriminated against. She wouldn't do it to Remus simply because he turned into a dangerous man-eating wolf once a month. No way.

On this note, Lily hurried to her first class.

James and Sirius were also heading to their first class. They had split off from the rest of the Marauders who had a different class. Walking the narrow corridors of the castle, the two Gryffindors ran into their least favorite person of late. (And in general.) Severus Snape. And he was followed by some big Slytherin boys. The only apt description for them was 'thugs.' (Or more accurately in the wizarding world 'Trainee death eaters.')

Sirius grinned when he saw them. In all honesty, it was more of a grimace-growl sort of expression. It was clear that Sirius was about to take all of his frustration over the last few hours out on the person that had been the cause of it all, but before he had even opened his mouth, Snape began to talk.

"Well if isn't the school's biggest blood traitors. I guess Filch missed a spot when he was scraping scum out of the hallways."

Both Sirius and James backed up in surprise. They were used to getting into fights with Snape, but they weren't used to him starting them. What was he playing at? Still the two pranksters rose to the bait that Snape so carefully laid out for them.

"Well I'd rather be a blood traitor than a greasy, long-nosed slimeball!" James retorted, then mentally winced. That was the best comeback that he could come up with?

Snape smirked. "Well at least I can string together a sentence. All you can do Potter is fly a broomstick around the sky in circles, and based on the last Quidditch match, you can't even do that well!"

James opened his mouth to reply, but Sirius put a hand out to stop his friend. James looked at the look on Sirius' face, and it scared him. James could see the anger clearly displayed on his face. Snape had given Sirius every reason in the world to hate him. He had been the cause of all this trouble over Remus and now Snape had insulted Sirius' best friend. It was the straw that broke the camel's back. Say what you will about the Marauders but if someone insults one of them, you can count on the rest being there to give that person hell.

"You Snivilus, are a good for nothing piece of shit! You hurt everything you touch. I'd be surprised if even Voldemort would take you," Sirius said his voice shaking with anger. He gave Snape a condescending look. "But then, you're just his type. We all know how you view muggleborns. You made that clear enough last year. Anyone who says that to someone trying to help them is worthy of becoming a death eater."

Even Snape looked a little surprised at Sirius' words. He had clearly not expected him to lose control so quickly, but along with the surprise on his face, Snape also had a look of hurt. Sirius had struck a chord in the scrawny Slytherin. Apparently the events that transpired between him and Lily were still a touchy subject. It James a lot of satisfaction seeing the bastard hurt for what he had said to Lily the previous year. He deserved it.

Snape clenched his fists and turned so he was facing Sirius instead of James. "You had a great life. You were raised by the perfect family. You taught the way a true pureblood family should act! But what did you? You went off and joined the blood traitors! You don't deserve to speak the dark lord's name!" Snape shouted.

Sirius froze. That was the one rule with Sirius Black: don't mention his family. Snape had just crossed a line, and now there was no coming back. "My. Family. Is. A. Bunch. Of. Murderers."

Snape shook his head and tsked. "To think that you're related to Bellatrix. It makes me sick to see how-" He was cut off by Sirius shouting a spell. The ball of light hit him squarely in the jaw before he could even react. To his horror, were the spell hit was expanding and swelling at an alarming rate.

Sirius shrugged past the group of Slytherins. None of the mdid anything to try to stop him. James followed. When they reached a corner Sirius turned back around to see Snape kneeling on the ground still fingering his jaw. (Which had grown to roughly the size of a softball and was still growing.) "You're lucky. If you ever mention my family again, you'll wish that you had a swollen face!" Sirius then continued to walk towards their first class, ignoring the insults the angry Slytherins threw after them.

**A/N Okay, I'm really sorry that it's so short. I was going to write more, but this seemed like a good place to end it. Sorry if Snape or anyone else seemed OOC. I promise that the next chapter will be much better. (Plus there will be a lot of James and Lily action hopefully!) Please please please review! I appreciate all the support.**

**P.S. I spelled Filch right! (I hope) If you guys notice anything else wrong, please don't hesitate to point it out to me! Love you all!**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N Hello there people! This chapter is on time more or less! -waits for applause- So thank you to all the lovely reviews and support I've been getting for this story! I know you all must hate what with my horrible sense of time, but still you guys are the best. Here is chapter 14, and hopefully you guys appreciate it since this chapter is totally dedicated to James and Lily love! Before anyone tells me that they don't get together until seventh year and it's only sixth blah blah blah, please just wait, I promise that I'm actually sticking to J K's timeline. I just think that the story hasn't been focusing on their romance that much of late and here is my way of getting it back on track. ;) Also this chapter is needed to thicken the plot!**

**P.S. I finally changed my name for those of you who didn't notice! I've been meaning to do it for like a year! I'm now the Firefly Alchemist! (Cookies to anyone who know's the two references!) Enough about my boring life, let's get back to our favorite couple!**

James watched Sirius carefully after the fight with Snape. To his surprise, his friend seemed to have brushed it off with ease. Sure they almost everyday got into fights with various members of Slytherin House, but before that day, none of them had been stupid enough to bring up Sirius' past. Whether this was because they were afraid of what Sirius would do to them or if they were afraid that one of Sirius' relatives (specifically Bellatrix even though she already out of Hogwarts) would do to them if they ever found out that someone was connecting the notorious Gryffindor prankster to the Noble, well respected, and most importantly pure-blooded Black family, James didn't know. On both sides it was like Sirius' childhood had never happened. It was a shameful thing for both. Anyone who didn't keep their mouth shut about it was likely to end up in the Hospital Wing (or even St. Mungo's) with serious injuries.

Still, James noticed that Sirius' calm exterior was false; it seemed forced. Of course only someone who knew Sirius as long as James did would ever pick up on it. Remus, like James noticed immediately something was wrong, but unlike James he had no idea what that something could be. Being Remus, he didn't push either of his friends (He could also tell that James did know what was bothering Sirius) choosing rather to believe that the information would be offered up when the two boys were ready. Peter also seemed to think something was off, but he obviously didn't have such an acute sense on it as Remus did. Since none of the rest of Marauders were saying anything about it, Peter pouted slightly, but he also didn't push.

The day was spent awkwardly for the Marauders, all faking light cheery conversation and avoiding the subject that three of them wanted desperately to talk about. Later that evening though, a notice in the Gryffindor Common Room lightened everyone's mood.

"Hey look, we're going to Hogsmede this weekend!" Peter excitedly told the rest of the Marauders. It's true that since they found the passage way behind the one-eyed witch Hogsmede weekends weren't quite as exciting for them as the rest of the school, but they were still something to look forward to, seeing as they wouldn't have to hide under James' invisibility cloak.

"Good," Sirius stated. "I've been wanting to go to Three Broomsticks." Since Madam Rosmerta knew the four boys, especially Sirius and James very well, they could never risk going in for a warm butterbeer unless it was a Hogsmede weekend, for she unlike the other shop owners would notice and would not hesitate to tell Professor McGonagall or some other teacher that the boys were illegally visiting Hogsmede

James nodded, agreeing with his friend. "It's been forever since the last one."

"Are you going to ask Lily to go with you again?" Remus asked casually.

James pondered the question for a second. Before he wouldn't have hesitated to ask Lily, (and she wouldn't have hesitated to shoot him down) but with everything that had been going on recently, James honestly didn't know what he should do. "I think that I might..."

Sirius chuckled, this at least letting him forget about the fight with Snape earlier that day. "Guess you'll never learn, will you mate?" He asked James.

James pouted slightly. "What, you don't think that she'd go with me?" He asked indigently.

All the Marauders shook their heads simultaneously.

"Well what if I asked her as you know... a friend?" James asked hopefully.

"Dunno, mate." Sirius answered. Then a grin spread across his face. "I guess we'll just have to come up with a plan in which she will say yes."

James sighed. "How in the world would you possibly get Lily Evans to do something that she doesn't want to do?" He asked.

Sirius' face fell slightly. "Well..."

Remus looked up from the book he was reading. "You two are idiots. You know that right?" He asked.

"Well Mr. I'm so smart I read," Sirius paused, twisting his head to read the title of the book that Remus was reading. "'A History of Runes spanning from 1100 to 1500 Found Near and On the British Isles and Their Effects and Usage in the Modern Wizarding World'... Blimey, why are you reading that, Moony?"

Remus sighed. "Some of us actually have to study for our classes, Padfoot."

Sirius laughed.

"So what were you saying about us being idiots?" James asked innocently, figuring he would take being called an idiot any day if it got Lily Evans to go to Hogsmede with him.

Remus sighed. "Y'know there are other ways to get a girl to go out with you besides tricking them."

Both Sirius and James looked shocked.

Remus sighed again. "Look, if you just want to go as friends, then ask Frank if he wants to come with us."

Both of the pranksters stared at him, clearly not following.

Remus shook his head. "For two geniuses neither of you catch on very fast. If Frank comes with us, then so will Alice because they're..." Remus paused, clearly waiting for the other two to finish. They didn't. "Because they're dating. And since Alice and Lily are best friends, she'll go with Alice, and in turn come with us." Remus finished.

The rest of the Marauders looked amazed at their friend. "That might actually work," Sirius said.

James nodded in agreement.

"Lils I'm sorry," Alice said. Explaining what had happened to her friend. "Frank already said sure. If you don't want to go with the Marauders, I'll just come with you instead." Alice suggested, but Lily just waved her off.

"It's fine, I don't actually mind going with them." Lily stated.

Her friend looked surprised and slightly suspicious. "Are you sure, because Frank won't mind if-"

"No it's fine. I mean if you don't think they'll care about having me come along."

Alice shook her head. "Lily, I'm pretty sure that you could go anywhere with James Potter and he wouldn't mind."

Lily laughed. Secretly, she was almost glad that she would be spending this time with the four boys. Especially James Potter, but there was no way in hell that she was going to admit that to anyone including herself. No if anything, she probably wanted to go to see Remus. That was perfectly reasonable. She hadn't had a proper conversation with him since she found out that he was a werewolf.

"You're sure that you don't mind?" Alice asked.

Lily shook her head.

"Well alright, I guess that we're going to Hogsmede with the Marauders." Alice shuddered. "There's something that I thought I'd never hear myself say."

Lily sighed a little. Part of her thought that Alice was right. What was she thinking? But a different part, (and a bigger part) couldn't wait until that weekend.

In almost no time, It was Saturday. It was early spring, but still everyone bundled up for there was still a slight chill to the air. Lily pulled on her cloak and her Gryffindor scarf. After some consideration she decided that it was too warm to wear a hat or gloves.

Lily stared at herself in the mirror. _Do I look alright?_ She wondered. Then sighed. She was spending way more time than she should wondering about how she looked. After all it wasn't like anything was going to happen. No, she was just going out with friends. That was it. If one of those friends happened to be a boy who she was having very mixed feelings about, well that wasn't important. Right?

"Lily, come one; everyone else is already on their way!" Alice shouted.

"Kay, I'll be there in a second, Alice," Lily yelled back. With one last glance in the mirror, she turned and left the girl's dormitory with Alice.

"Where are we meeting them?" Lily asked quietly on the walk to Hogsmede.

"Frank told me at Zonkos." Alice replied.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Of course that would be the Marauder's first stop!"

Alice giggled, but was interrupted by Mary and Dorcas the two other Sixth year Gryffindor girls. "So Lily, we heard that you have a date with James Potter!" Mary practically sang.

Lily stopped walking. "What? Who told you that? We- we don't have a date!"

Mary looked a little disappointed. "So you're not going to Hogsmede with him?"

Lily turned a deep shade of red. The feeling of her ears getting warmer only made her blush more. "Well, Alice, Frank, and I are just going with all the Marauders. It's not a date..." Lily trailed off, realizing how lame it sounded.

Mary obviously agreed because she squealed. "So you guys are going out!"

"No! no-" Lily spluttered desperately trying to explain herself. Why oh why had she agreed to come?

Dorcas sighed. "Don't mind her Lily. We're just exciting that you two finally got together! You're such a cute couple. And James is so sweet!"

"We're not-" Lily tried yet again to convince them that she and Potter didn't have a date and were by no means going out, but they had already hurried away.

Alice giggled behind her.

"Are they both deaf?" Lily cried.

"Oh, let it go, Lily. They were just being nice," Alice said, choking on more giggles.

Lily humphed. "That's easy for you to say. Everyone knows that you're dating the perfect guy."

"Stop it," Alice said, lightly slapping Lily's arm, but Lily could tell that she was pleased.

The thing that had bothered Lily most about the conversation was that she actually didn't mind that much that they thought that she and Potter were going out. Was she... She couldn't be falling for Potter could she?

Luckily Lily was saved from her thoughts as Alice pulled them to a stop. "We're here," she said, pointing to the joke shop.

Lily looked in apprehensively. "Does it make me a coward to say I'm afraid to go in there with the Marauders?" Lily asked.

Alice's expression was determined. "It makes you smart. Come on."

With that the two girls took each other's arms and marched bravely into the hellish shop.

To both of their surprise, no major catastrophes happened in the joke shop, or at least no one got hurt. There was a little incident with Dungbombs and a fanged Frisbee but it turned out okay. Well, Potter had to dish out six galleons for repairs, but from what Lily had heard, his family was loaded, so she supposed it was fine.

"So, where should head now?" Sirius Black asked, as the group stepped outside into the frigid air.

"Brrrr. Let's go to the Three Broomsticks; I'm freezing!" Alice suggested.

"We've only been outside for two seconds," Frank laughed.

"Yes, and that's two seconds too much!" Alice pouted.

Frank laughed again and leaned down to give her sweet peck on the cheek.

Alice giggled, and Lily felt her heart flutter a little with envy. She quickly suppressed the feeling.

Sirius looked around. "Anyone else? Okay, the Three Broomsticks it is!" He threw his arms around the two people closest to him (who happened to be Lily and James) and they all set off.

After the Three Broomsticks the group of Gryffindors walked around Hogsmede a bit. They visited The Post Office and just wandered around. Alice and Frank suggested they go up and visit the Shrieking Shack. It was an old hotel sitting on a hill. In the past couple of years the people of Hogsmede complained about shrieks and wails they heard coming from it. It was quickly becoming considered the most haunted building in all of Britain. Despite all this, all four Marauders refused, pointing out that it was getting late and they should head to Honeydukes before everyone had to return to the castle.

To their surprise, Honeydukes was almost empty. Only a couple other small groups were shopping.

Sirius grinned. "Well, I guess we should come here at the end of the day more often!" Everyone agreed. They were all (except maybe the Marauders) used to pushing through hoards of students to get to the aisles of candy and relished the luxury of being able to take there time choosing what to buy.

Everyone quickly broke up and hurried off to the corners of the store that housed their favourite kind of candy.

Lily soon found herself alone in an aisle with Potter. She blushed a little, but didn't leave. He to remained where he was, but he didn't break the silence that fell over them. For a few minutes, they browsed together in peace, but were interrupted by a rowdy group of fifth years. All their scarves bore the silver and green of Slytherin. James moved almost protectively closer to Lily. She held her chin up and ignored him.

The Slytherins laughed as they saw who was in the aisle with them. "Look it's the blood traitor!" James recognized the leader of the group as one of the goons who had been trailing Snape earlier that week. They must have been feeling pretty good about themselves if they insulting him all on their own.

"What did you come back for more?" James asked, addressing the leader. While he was speaking he was also subtly inching in front of Lily who had turned at the sound of the Slytherin's voices.

The leader of the group's eye's bulged. Apparently he was a little touchy about the fight. His eyes then went to Lily behind James. James hated how his eyes suddenly lit up. "Oh and look who he's got with him! His little mudblood!"

James stepped forward raising his wand, but he felt a small hand on his arm and looked down to see Lily. She was glaring angrily at the Slytherins. "Oh, so you've heard of me. You might want to watch what you say to someone who could jinx your tongue so it shrivels and falls out of your big mouth. Also I'm a prefect, so I'm able to deduct points from your house, which I think I'll do. So go run off and explain to rest of the arses in your house how a 'mudblood' took ten of their points!"

James wanted to laugh at the expressions on their faces, but he didn't have time since Lily brushed past them and stormed out of the store. After a moments hesitation, he followed her, but paused to pat the lead Slytherin's shoulder. "Well, she told you, mate!" He laughed as the big boy tried to push his hand off, and slipped after the small redhead.

James found Lily standing in the light dusting of snow on the ground gazing up at the sky. To his surprise, he saw a little tear in the corner of her eye, but when she heard him approach, she quickly wiped it away. "Are you alright?" He asked her quietly.

She nodded. "It's not the first time that I've been called mudblood."

James winced remembering the incident last year with Snape. "I'm sorry."

Lily turned to him, surprise evident on her face. "What for? They still would have insulted me even if you weren't there."

"No, it's not that. I'm sorry about Snape, and about what happened in fifth year. I guess I'm sorry about all the stupid things that the Marauders have done."

Lily looked genuinely surprised. "You know James Potter, you are a sweet guy."

Now it was James who was surprised. Not only had she called him by his first name, she had called him sweet! Lily Evans had called him, James Potter, sweet!

Lily laughed at his expression. "I'm glad you guys invited Frank to come with you," she said.

James felt the heat crawling up his neck and face, and knew that his face must have been very red. "Well actually, we invited Frank because I hoped that he would bring Alice, and Alice would bring you." he explained sheepishly.

It was Lily's turn to be surprised again, but then she smiled. "You could have just asked me."

"And you could have shot me down again. No, I had to be clever!" James said playfully.

"I would have said yes," Lily said matter of factly, looking into his beautiful hazel eyes. "Thanks... James."

"For what?"

"For standing up for me back there. Or at least trying before I stopped you." She smiled again. "Also, for not cursing those guys. If you had I'd have been honor-bound to put you in detention, being a prefect and all." Lily stepped up up on her tippy toes and gave James a small kiss on the cheek, before hurrying back into the store to buy her candy.

James watched her go, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. Now he felt a little bad about the Dungbomb he had slipped into that guy's pocket as he walked past. Oh well; the jerk deserved it.

**A/N Wow! This chapter is really long! I hoped that you all enjoyed the James and Lily action in this chapter! Again I know that it seems like I'm not sticking to J K's timeline, but I promise that I am! Love you all! Please please please please review if you liked it! (or if you didn't I'll take any reviews I can get!) Thanks to everyone who supports this story! You guys rock!**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N Okay here is my on time 15th chapter! Before it, I'd just like to say that at the moment I'm 2 reviews away from hitting 60, so if you read this, please make a short little comment, I'd greatly appreciate it! I love everyone who reads my story! Even if you just clicked on it by accident! (Well I guess that if you got to chapter 15 you'd have to enjoyed at least a bit!) So please review blah blah blah... Enjoy!**

**Wait! I went back and reread the previous chapter, and it sucked! Well, I apologize for my horrible writing, I hope it didn't annoy you too much. (I was in a hurry to post it so I didn't spend nearly enough time editing it.) Okay, now Enjoy! Oh, one more thing, this is the big sixth year finale! (or the start of it, it's going to be at least two chapters long.)  
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Over the next few months, Lily and James grew very close. Almost closer than Lily would like to admit, but still they weren't anything more than friends. To tell the truth, Lily was afraid to think about them becoming anything more than just friends. She had spent so much time turning him down that she hadn't ever gotten to know him. Now that she did know him, she found quite liked James Potter. He was kind and sweet. In fact she found herself looking forward to when they would hang out and talk. In fact she was almost... missing him when they weren't together.

Despite what she had told James in Hogsmede when the Slytherins had harassed her, he had yet to ask her out. How ironic that he couldn't go an hour without asking her out when she'd wanted nothing to do with him, and now that she secretly almost wanted him to ask her out, he didn't even seem to be considering doing it.

Lily sighed. She was slightly afraid that the only reason he had ever been interested in her was because she was the only girl in the school who would turn him down, but then again he hadn't dated any other girls since they became friends. (This earned Lily many death stares from various girls all around the school who had also noticed this.) So maybe, there was a chance that he still liked her. In the past few months, the entire sixth year of Gryffindor had gotten much closer. Before, it really was Lily's hate that had kept them apart. Now that they were friends, all the fights seemed to be forgotten. Lily had to admit that the common room, and all the classes they had together were much more enjoyable. Looking back on it, Lily was very ashamed of the way she had treated James before.

* * *

><p>James was also looking back on the last few years at Hogwarts. Like Lily he was also slightly ashamed. Truly, the past few months had been the happiest of his life. With every moment he spent with Lily, he found that he liked her more and more. He liked everything about her, from the way her laugh sounded like bells clattering into a pool of honey, to the way she always had a determined slightly nervous expression on her face when she was preforming magic, no matter how easy the spell was. He loved the way she acted as though every detail, even the tiniest was worth all her attention. He loved the way her hair got darker when it was raining, and how it lit back up when sun came out. James was infatuated with her. He hungrily ate every detail about her and the way she acted. There was no longer even the slightest hint of doubt in his mind. He was in love with Lily Evans.<p>

Of course, he would have to work up a lot more courage than he had to tell her. To be honest, he was terrified. Terrified that despite what she had told him at Hogsmede, she wouldn't return his feelings. Terrified that he would ruin the friendship that they had built. Terrified that she would leave him. Terrified that he would lose her, even if he only had her as a friend. James knew that he rather have Lily as a friend than not have her at all.

It wasn't only him, the rest of the Marauder's found that they quite liked having Lily around as well. (She hadn't become any more accepting of their pranks, though perhaps she was a little less cruel in the number of detentions she would give them as punishment.) She was the only one besides themselves who knew about Remus, and she kept her word and had not told anyone. This automatically boosted her in the eyes of the Marauders. Of course, she still had no idea that James, Sirius and Peter turned into various animals and helped him through the transformations every month. That was one secret that they guarded carefully. However, she did know that he went to the shrieking shack to change. The other three could see a real improvement with Remus' self-confidence now that someone besides themselves knew about his condition. and still treated him like a regular person. Also, Lily was tutoring Peter in classes he had trouble in. (Which was pretty much all of them.) James was sure that the rest of the Marauder's would kill him if he messed up their friendship with Lily. That put a little pressure on him.

Even Sirius had gotten slightly better when Lily was around. He acted out less. Though James had never really considered their behavior 'bad' before, he had to admit is was nice not being in detention all the time. God, he and Sirius probably had more detentions than anyone else in the entire history of Hogwarts. Neither of them were exactly rule-followers. By all accounts, James and Sirius were the exact opposite of Lily Evans, yet somehow they all enjoyed each others company. In fact, Lily and Sirius were becoming almost as good friends as Lily and James. Conversations flowed easy between them. Well at least until Snape was brought up. This where they both faltered. It seemed to James that despite Sirius' efforts to appear normal, the fight in which Snape had mentioned his family had really gotten to James' friend. Lily didn't like talking about Snape for obvious reasons. Mostly, everyone kept that subject off limits.

Snape too had changed since Lily and James' friendship. Where as he used to at least try to prevent fights between him and the Marauders, he seemed to be the one starting them now. Apparently he had taken their friendship as a personal insult to himself. Well, it couldn't be helped and at the moment James had more important things to think about, like finishing the stupid charms essay that he had been working on for forty-five minutes, but alas the world seemed to not want him to continue.

"So, how should we spend the full moon tonight?" Sirius asked James and the rest of the Marauders. He cocked his head at angle, and his eyes flitted around the room to make sure that no one was listening in.

"It's the full moon tonight?" James asked, horrified.

The rest of the Marauders turned to him surprised, usually the full moon was everyone's favorite time of month. "What's wrong with that?" Remus asked. Even though he didn't show it, he was slightly hurt.

"Now when am going to finish this essay? It's due tomorrow!" James cried. His face was a mask of horror. Just by looking at it, you could tell that this was the worst thing that had happened in the history of the world.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Y'know, Flitwick assigned that essay weeks ago."

James sighed. "I know that Moony. But obviously, it's not done yet!" he retorted.

Sirius laughed. "I finished mine ages ago."

"You did not!" James said. "I happen to know that you also put yours off!"

With a grand flourish, Sirius produced a rolled up piece of parchment from his robes. "There. An essay about the theory of turning vinegar into wine!"

James reached for it, but Sirius yanked it away. "Not so fast, mate!"

"Please, Padfoot? It's the only way I'll finish in time!" James asked with pleading expression, but Sirius simply laughed and tucked it carefully back into his robes.

"Remus?" James asked hopefully.

"No. You have to do your own homework, Prongs."

"And you call yourselves my friends!" James cried.

"How long does it have to be?" Peter asked.

"60 centimeters."

"How long is yours?"

"15 so far." James answered miserably.

"Sorry, mate." Sirius laughed. The rest of the Marauders laughed with him, and eventually James started laughing too. He wasn't sure why, but then, he wasn't sure why not either.

* * *

><p>Severus Snape was not laughing. He was pacing. Desolately. He was skulking around the dungeons, waiting for her. He knew that she was making her prefect rounds. She would pass him any moment. He just wanted to talk to her. To find out what was going on with her, why she spending time with Potter. That was all. It had to be because of him. She was mad at him, and wanted to hurt him. <em>Well, don't I deserve it?<em> Snape asked himself. Truly, he believed that the deserved the worst punishment possible for calling Lily a mudblood even if it was a year ago. But this wasn't the way. Why couldn't she see that? Leading Potter on like this... it was going to get her hurt. Snape didn't trust Potter at all, and he worried what the notorious prankster would do to Lily if something happened. _I'll kill him if he hurts her,_ Snape thought decidedly. He was jerked from the sea of swirling images of Lily and James Potter by the quick thump of footsteps, rounding a corner.

He ducked inside the nearest door. He left a crack so he could look out. An eerie band of light fell across his face as the torches in the corridor shone into the dark room. Through the sliver, he saw her unmistakeable deep red hair. "Lily," he started, coming out.

She jerked towards him. Her wand whipped out of her robes and pointed at him. For a second, her eyes were bright and alert, but when she saw who it was, dark walls erected themselves around her irises, as if to protect herself from his gaze. As though his aura could taint her soul. That hard guarded look in Lily's eyes all but broke Snape's heart. "Oh. I should have known." She made to walk past him, but he grabbed her arm. She yanked it out of his grasp as if she'd been shocked. "Don't touch me!"

"Lily, wait. Please, I need to talk to you!" Snape said frantically. For a moment, her eyes softened, and he relaxed. She would talk to him. Lily Evans was not the kind of person to ignore years of friendship, no matter how horribly they had ended. It was one of the reasons he loved her.

"What do you want _Snape_?" She put emphasis on his last name. She would hear what he had to say, but that did not mean that the were friends.

Snape wiped his hands nervously on his robes. This was the moment he had been waiting for, but now that it was here, he suddenly had no idea what to say. "Lily, I want to know why you've been spending so much time with Potter! You know what he's like!"

Any minute speck of softness in her face vanished. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

However, Snape did not give up. He would make her see this! "He's a complete git! he's a jerk to everyone, He's not-" Snape broke off, but he finished the sentence in his mind. _He's not good enough for you._

"So long as you're warning me about people, you might want to mention yourself!"

Snape jerked in surprise. "I would never hurt you," he cried, but her eyes told him that he already had. She turned to leave again, but again he stopped her. "Is it because of me?" He asked desperately.

"Don't flatter yourself." She said in a shaky voice without turning around. "You should be more careful about how you talk about my friends." With one last pull, she wrenched her arm away from him, and started down the corridor again.

**A/N Okay, so what did you think? Please tell me! It was better written than the last chapter for sure. (Wow the last one sucked.) Oh yeah, and sorry about the wait. The second half of the chapter took me forever to write. I promise to get them up more efficiently. Also, I had originally meant to do something completely different in this chapter, but that will have to wait till the next one. Please please please please please please please please tell me what you think of it! REVIEW PLEASE! **


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N Here's chapter 16! Honestly I'm not that happy wit the way it came out, but I figure that I've kept you waiting long enough, so here it is!**

**Aslo, I kind of strayed from J K Rowling's timeline a bit, but just a little bit, so go with it.**

For the first time in a long time, Severus Snape did not have a plan as he wandered the dark and gloomy corridors of the castle. He didn't seek the company his friends, choosing to instead walk alone. They wouldn't understand why he brooded. They knew that he 'fancied' Lily Evans, and that was alright. She was pretty enough, plus she was generally considered Potter's girl, (Snape shuddered at the thought) and anything to infuriate a blood traitor was good in their eyes, even if it meant shagging his mudblood girlfriend. But, he didn't just 'fancy' Lily Evans. He was in love with her. He didn't want her because of her looks or because it would break Potter; he wanted her for her. He wanted the girl he had watched swinging with her sister, making a small, perfect bloom open and close in her hand, not realizing that even at such a young age, her beauty reflected that of flower in her palm. Snape had realized it. He had understood that she was literally a gift from whatever god there was. The first time he had seen her laugh, it was like seeing a whole new world through her eyes. Snape wanted to live in that world. He wanted to be the one to fill her eyes with joy and spark that beautiful world. He wanted to be the one who would stand with her at the alter and whisper "I do." Of course, he couldn't tell his friends any of this; they wouldn't understand. Truthfully, he didn't quite understand himself, but that was alright. He knew what he wanted. The only question was how to get it.

For the second time that night, Snape was dragged out of his miserable thoughts by the sounds of quickly approaching feet. After a breif consideration, Snape decided that he'd rather stay out in the open and face whoever it was head-on. A sick demon inside of himself wished that it would be James Potter. He would kill that slimey bastard! Unfortunately, it wasn't Potter that rounded the corner, but in fact Sirius Black.

It was hard to tell which boy was more surprised at running into the other. For a second they both paused as if they weren't sure of what to do. Quickly, any emotions that had been carelessy sprawled on either of their faces disappeared.

Once they got over the initial surprise however, both boys immediately jumped to the offensive, as was their nature. They had both obviously meant to be alone with their thoughts, and a fight as the best ay to cover up any breif moment of vulnrability that the other may have seen.

"Well, if it isn't Snivellus," Sirius stated with cruel amusement dripping from his tongue.

"Sirius Black," Snape replied equally as cold. "What brings you here? Oh, let me guess," he said, tapping his forefinger to his head as if making a prediction. "Hogwart's 'genious' is hopelessy lost," on the word 'genious' a smirk appeared on the Slytherin's face. "Well, it's to be expected. Seeing as all you do is pull stupid pranks."

Sirius sighed, as though he were weary of dealing with a small child. He tutted softly. "Oh Snivellus, there's so much you don't understand about the world."

The smirk on Snape's face turned into a sneer. "You have no idea what I know."

Sirius gave a light laugh. "True. Personally I would pay to not know what goes on in your mind."

"Well, at the moment I'm wondering what you're going to do without your friends backing you up." Snape stated.

Sirius laughed again, but this time it came out low, a growl, a chllenge. Nothing like the light chuckle that had escaped his lips few moments before. It was clear that Snape was starting to get to him. "I don't need anyone to help me kick your arse, Snivellus."

"I should think not. Why would anyone need the help of a blood traitor, a coward, or a... what is Lupin, I wonder?" Snape asked, cocking an eyebrow at the Gryffindor.

Something pushed Sirius over the edge. Whatever it was, it enticed him to grab Snape's robes and shove him up against the cold, stone wall. "I wouldn't insult my friends if I were you." He said, his voice shaking with furey. Every bone in his body wanted to kill Snape, but then, a different idea popped into his head. "You want to know what Remus is?" He asked, his tone deceptively sweet.

Snape didn't answer, but he had clearly heard Sirius based on his shocked expression.

Sirius leaned his head closer to Snape's, so he was practically breathing into the other boy's ear. "I'll let you in on a little secret. All you have to do is touch the big knot on trunk of the womping willow tonight, and all your questions will be answered."

The shocked expression remained fixed on Snape's face, but soon he managed to twist his mouth back into a sneer. "Yeah. You think I'll fall for that? The moment I get close to that monster of a tree, it'll bash my face in!"

Sirius let Snape go, and waved his hand absently. "Use a stick. I don't care. Personally, I think that your face could do woth some change." After saying that, Sirius nonchelantly stuck his hands in his pockets and walked away. He didn't ook back. He knew that Snape was probably wondering whether he could trust Sirius, but Sirius knew that in the end curiosity would win out. It always did.

* * *

><p>As Sirius entered the Gryffindor common room much later, he was almost surprised not feel regret in the pit of his stomach. He had entirely expected to feel bad about what he had done. Not only had he given away the Marauder's best kept secret to perhaps their worst enemy, but he had also put Snape in a position to get seriously injured. Despite all of this, no pangs of remorse compromised his conscience. He smiled as he sat down next to his friends at a table, secure in the knowledge that whatever happened to Snape that night, he deserved it.<p>

"What are you so happy about?" James asked, seeing the psychotic grin on his friend's face.

"Nothing," Sirius said. He wouldn't tell them. Not yet anyway.

James stared across the table, concerned, for a few more seconds, but then sighed and turned to Remus. "How are you holding up?"

Remus' eyes were tired, and he was sitting hunched over. The full moon was clearly having its effects on him. "I'm fine. I feel the moon, though."

"How does one 'feel' the moon?" James asked, genuinely curious.

"It's like a pulsing on the back of my neck. I can almost feel the moon calling to me. It's like an invisible string is pulling me towards it. As it gets closer to the full moon, the pulses get stronger and stronger, until they just take me over..." Remus tried his best to explain his 'condition'.

James blinked. "Oh. That's how one 'feels' the moon."

Sirius laughed at his best friend.

Remus shuddered a bit. "It's almost time. I should head down to the hospital wing."

"Okay," James said, his eyes narrowed, still concerned about Remus.

"We'll see you there," Sirius said, feeling almost giddy about what was going to happen.

"Good luck," Peter chimed in.

Remus nodded to all three of them, then left the common room.

"Well, Moony's not feeling well. I hope he's better in time for class tomorrow," Sirius commented loudly.

"Yeah. Maybe I should bring him his books," James announced, just as loudly.

The bustle of the common room never paused, but the Marauder's had been covering for Remus long enough to know all the tricks of the trade. They always left hints like this. Even if the people didn't acknowledge the information, it would hopefully embed itself into their minds so they wouldn't be surprised if Remus didn't attend classes the next day.

With nothing left to do but wait for the common room to clear out, the Marauders sat for almost an hour in silence. Finally, they decided to retrieve the invisibility cloak and start their journey to the womping willow.

They laughed going up the stairs to their dormitory, making a big show of leaving. When they reached their room, they were thankful that Frank hadn't gotten there yet. It would be much harder for them to sneak out if he were there, but he wouldn't be the least bit surprised to come in and not find them in their beds. (The Marauders seemed to have a bad habit of sneaking out.)

"I have to use the toilet!" Peter cried as soon as they had pulled the cloak out of James' trunk.

James and Sirius sighed in unison. "Now Peter?" James asked, exasperated. "Why couldn't you have gone earlier?"

Peter didn't answer, he just ran out of the room.

_Well, now's as good a time as any to tell him._ Sirius thought. "James, I have to tell you something."

James turned towards him, clearly surprised. "Yes?"

"Well I met Snape, and he was being his usual nasty self. He kept asking about Remus, so I told him if he wanted to find out what was going on all he had to do was touch the knot on the womping willow." Sirius took a breath, glancing sidelong at his friend.

James seemed to have frozen. "What?" He finally asked.

"I-" Sirius started, but James cut him off.

"I heard. I meant what the hell were you thinking?" James cried, coming out of his shocked state. "Do you realize what you've done? Remus could kill him!" James yelled, and he started to run towards the door.

"You didn't hear him. I couldn't just stand there. He deserved it," Sirius said. He was surprised at James' reaction. He had convinced himself that James would laugh it off and agree that the bastard deserved anything that would happen to him, but now as Sirius stared at his friend, he knew that James was too good of a person to do that.

"I don't give a damn how much Snape deserved it, Sirius! Think about what happens to Remus if kills or even bites someone! He could get expelled or worse!"

With a start, Sirius realized what the full consequences for his actions might be. "Dammit."

"Yeah dammit. I'm going after him," James stated, swinging the cloak around himself, so his body disappeared and all that was left of him was a hovering head.

"James you can't. You can't change in front of Snape, and if you don't Remus could hurt you as well."

James sighed. "I have to." And he was gone.

Sirius kicked the post of his bed in anger.

"What's going on?" Peter asked, reemerging from the toilet.

* * *

><p>Snape stood at the edge of the grounds, staring at the womping willow. At the moment, it was just waving its branches around aimlessly, but Snape knew that that would change the minute he got within range.<p>

Why was he here? Did he actually believe what Black had said? There was no way that he would help Snape in anyway. But at the same time, there was no way Snape couldn't take this opportunity. Any possibility of finding out what was going on with Lupin was wort the risk. Besides, how would Black have set up a trap in a tree?

With his shoulders squared and chin jutted in the air, Snape carefully picked up a stick laying on the ground next to him. He edged closer to the tree, trying not to alert it of his presence. (Could he alert a tree of his presence?) When he deemed himself close enough, he slowly reached the branch out and touched the knot. The tree froze.

_Well, so far, Black seems to have told the truth._ Snape thought grimly. He circled the base of the trunk until he found the gap in the roots. He looked around, then threw his stick away and crawled in.

* * *

><p>James ran through the winding halls of the castle until he made it to the grand staircase. As he waited for the stair he was on to connect to the next one, he paused to catch his breath, clutching a stitch in his side.<p>

When he was ready, he ran on to the next one. He took the steps two at a time, not paying any attention at all to his footing, so it wasn't a surprise when his foot sank into a trick step. _Dammit! I don't have time for this!_ He though frantically. Luckily, he was able to stop the other foot from landing on it, and as his momentum caught up to him, it threw him off balance. The force of the fall managed to pull his stuck foot free. Of course, he tumbled down the rest of the flight of stairs, and his invisibility cloak slipped off at some point. Oh well. As he pulled himself up, he decided that he didn't have time to go back for it. _I can get it later._ He thought, and promptly hurled himself down the rest of the staircase.

* * *

><p>Snape picked himself. He dusted off his robes. Looking around, he saw that he was in a tunnel of some sort. He started down. After walking for what seemed like forever, he started to hear howls and groans. With every new noise, his heart leapt in fear, but he determinedly kept going.<p>

Finally, he reached what appeared to be the end. He blinked to adjust his eyes to the light that was now streaming into the tunnel. When he opened his eyes, he saw the form of a great gray wolf lying on the floor. It's jaws opened and revealed huge teeth easily an inch long. Its eyes were an eerie yellow color that seemed to hold all the power of the moon in them. _I was right!_ He thought. _Lupin is a werewolf!_

His celebratory thoughts were cut short however as the wolf turned towards him.

**A/N So did you like it? Sorry about the cliff hanger. (Okay, I know it's not that much of a cliff hanger, since we all know what's going to happen but whatever.)**

**PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW! I will one you forever! I love hearing what you guys thought and anything that you think I should change and/or correct! Please just click on the review button sitting right under this author's note! **


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, so I hope you enjoy reading it just as much. Warning: There are a lot of quick point of view changes, but that's because I really wanted to show what both Snape and James are thinking, so I apologize for that in advance. Besides that, there's really nothing you need to know, so here is chapter 17! Oh, and this chapter actually has Lily in it! (I apologize about her absence from the last one)**

* * *

><p>James panted as he ran along the path that led up to the womping willow. He had never run so hard or so fast in his life. <em>Why is everything on the Hogwart's grounds spaced so damn far apart?<em> He wondered. Well, if he ever somehow met the four founders, he would give them a piece of his mind about their designs for the school._ Shouldn't they have anticipated emergencies like this one? Then again, I doubt anyone could have predicted this. _He thought bitterly to himself. His situation did seem a bit unimaginable, yet here he was.

_Well there's no point in feeling sorry for myself,_ he thought wearily. But, his thoughts had at least momentarily distracted him from the pounding of his feet, and the cramp in his side. Now that he emptied his mind, his ailments came back to him full-force. _It doesn't matter. I just have to get to that idiot Snape before he gets himself killed. _With that as the only thought he allowed into his mind, he let it fill all the nooks and crevices in his brain. He let it wash over him, until the thought became all he was. With the thought propelling him, James increased the speed of his feet, and ran faster towards the secret passage to the Shrieking Shack.

* * *

><p>Snape stumbled and fell onto his butt in his haste to get away from the searching yellow eyes that roamed towards him.<p>

The wolf paused and perked his ears up at the sound of stones shifting under Snape's sudden weight.

Snape was frozen in fear. Literally he couldn't move. He felt his stomach drop along with the pounding in his chest every time the massive wolf moved a muscle.

* * *

><p><em>Almost there!<em> James thought desperately as reached the womping willow. He didn't even bother with pressing the knot on the trunk, instead he weaved through the barrage of branches, relying entirely on his Quidditch reflexes to keep him from getting thrown across the grounds by any of the thick branches that the tree swung at him. He ducked and weaved, until finally he was able to scramble through the roots and into the passage that lay, hidden underneath.

He paused a moment, sitting with his back to the opening between the roots. After a few panted breaths, he pulled himself back to his feet, and continued the trek through the creepy, dark tunnel.

* * *

><p>Despite the adrenaline coursing through his veins, Snape still couldn't move even if he had wanted to. Not only were his muscles rigid, but his mind had gone completely blank. It wasn't that he couldn't focus, it was more like he couldn't do anything besides keep breathing. He was suspended in some state of severe shock. His breaths were ragged, short, and unfortunately loud.<p>

The wolf took a step towards him.

Snape's heart pounded like thousands of feet raging towards a battle. Then, suddenly he was getting jerked back.

Something hurridly dragged Snape back down the tunnel.

The wolf cocked his head, and seemed to consider following them, but then just turned away and headed farther into the Shrieking Shack.

At that point, Snape's mind started to work again, now that he was out of immediate danger. It was still a bit groggy, suffering the after-effects of the experience. "Wh-what's-" He was cut off abruptly as a sweaty hand clapped itself over his mouth.

"Shut up!" A voice hissed in his ear. A very familiar voice.

It took a second for Snape to place the voice, but when he did, the shock jolted him the rest of the way out of his brain dead state. "Potter?" He asked incredulously. The question was slightly muffled by the hand.

"Shhh!" was the reply. "Do you want him to hear us?"

Snape didn't answer, but allowed himself to get dragged away, still savoring the fact that he was alive. Of course, soon enough the thankfulness of the rescue wore off, and the shattering ego blow of being saved by his worst enemy took over. Snape shrugged Potter off. "Get off! I can walk on my own!" He said irritably.

* * *

><p>James growled angrily. Didn't this moron realize that at the moment their number one priority should be getting out of the secret passage alive, preferably not mauled by a werewolf? If his pride got them killed... "You didn't seem to mind my help a few minutes ago!" James practically spat.<p>

Snape gaped at him. "It's your damn fault that this happened at all!'

"My fault? How could this possibly be my fault?"

"You and your stupid friends! Pulling pranks all the time! Well, guess what? This one went a little too far, even by Marauder standards!"

"I didn't have any-" James started, but then stopped. Sure _he_ hadn't had anything to do with it, but Sirius had. The Marauders stood together. It was almost the same thing as being involved himself, so instead of finishing, he gritted his teeth and stated, "We need to get out of here."

"Oh great idea, Merlin! Why didn't I think of-"

"Before the werewolf catches up to us." James clarified, but Snape stubbornly refused to move.

"I'm not going anywhere with you!"

_Just swallow your pride, and stay alive!_ James thought angrily. He turned towards the wall, wanting nothing more than to slam his head into it, (or better yet, Snape's) but there wasn't time. He had tried to save Snape, but if the idiot wanted to die, who was James to stop him? "Fine. Stay here and get ripped apart, I'm not dying though."

James started back down the passage, and after a few seconds, so did Snape. He made it clear that they weren't friends though by making sure to walk at least a few paces behind him at all times. Finally, they emerged from the roots of the womping willow.

* * *

><p>Lily sighed and checked her watch. It was 9:30. A glance out the window told her that the sun had finally set. She bit her lip, thinking worriedly about Remus who, would by now be in his werewolf form. <em>I hope he's okay...<em> She thought.

She yawned. Remus might be staying up all night howling at the moon, but she was ready to go to bed. She still had two hours of patrolling left, though. She sighed again, rubbing the back of her neck. Lily started walking the corridors again, feeling that people didn't appreciate the work that prefects had to do nearly enough, when a commotion stole her attention.

Quickly, she ran through the doors that led to the Great Hall, following what sounded like shouting. _Who else is up? _Lily wondered. Sure, it could be teachers, but Lily somehow suspected that none of the professors would have a fight in the middle of Hogwarts, even if all students were supposed to be in bed.

She skidded to a halt as she entered the great hall, surprise clear on her face. The two people that she had least expected to see (let alone together) were standing in the middle of the great hall, yelling at each other. "James? Sev?" She asked, too surprised to remember to use Snape's last name.

They both stopped and turned towards her. "Lily?" James asked, who appeared equally as shocked to see her. "What are you doing up?"

"Umm... prefect," she answered, gesturing vaguely to the badge on her chest.

"Oh," was the lame reply.

The three stood awkwardly for second, none of them seeming to know what to do. Finally, Lily broke the silence. "You realize that I'm going to have to report you tw-" she started, but was cut off as Professor McGonagall approached.

"Miss Evans, what is going on here?" She asked in her clipped, curt tone, her lips were tightly pressed together, telling the three students that she annoyed to say the least.

Normally, even though James was now her friend, Lily would report him without a second thought, but tonight was different. All of this obviously had something to do with Remus, but she didn't know what. Finally, she decided to tell. _Professor McGonagall will probably figure it out anyway, _she told herself. So, she replied, "I caught those two wandering around the Great Hall, Professor."

The Professor gave a short nod, then turned her withering gaze to the boys standing beside Lily. "And what are you two doing up?"

Neither said anything.

Professor McGonagall looked from one to the other. Her eyes seemed to stop a second with James. For a moment, it looked as though they were having a silent conversation. Finally, the head of Gryffindor house let out a long sigh. "Miss Evans, will you please excuse us, I must take these two to Professor Dumbledore's office."

"But Professor-" Lily started, but was interrupted by the older woman.

"Now, Miss Evans."

Lily reluctantly went back to patrolling the dark hallways.

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><p>Before Professor McGonagall even had a chance to leave the office, both boys started loudly explaining to Professor Dumbledore what had happened, each trying to drown out the other's story, so his was heard first. After a few seconds, Professor Dumbledore held up his hand for silence. "Please! You will each have a chance to speak."<p>

James and Snape both stopped talking at the same moment. Hesitantly, they sat down in the chairs across from Dumbledore's desk. They waited for the old wizard to continue talking.

"Now, then. Are you both comfortable?" He asked pleasantly.

They nodded, still slightly afraid to speak.

"Can I offer either of you a lemon drop?" He asked, his tone still friendly, reaching out a bowl filled with the sweets.

James took one immediately, but Snape looked uncertain. James rolled his eyes, but cleared up the nature of the candies up for the Slytherin boy. "They're a type of muggle candy. They're actually quite good." James had visited the headmasters office for various pranks on more than one occasion, and had been offered the candy on each of his 'visits'.

Still uncertain, Snape picked one out and cautiously popped it into his mouth. After he seemed assured that it wasn't poisoned or anything, he turned his attention back to the headmaster.

"Now, why don't you start, Mr. Snape. What happened tonight?"

Snape was clearly relieved at having been picked to tell his side of the story first. "It was their fault!" He said, gesturing to James.

"Their?" Dumbledore asked with an eyebrow raised. "Since there is only one person sitting next to you, am I correct in assuming that you are referring to Mr. Potter's friends?"

The Slytherin nodded. "They told me to touch the knot on the womping willow, and to go through the tunnel! When I did, I-"

"I am well aware of what you saw Mr. Snape," Dumbledore said sharply. Then he turned to the other boy. "Is this true Mr. Potter?" He asked.

James said nothing, refusing to give up his friend.

"Neither of you got injured correct?" Dumbledore asked, when it clear James wasn't going to answer.

They both shook their heads.

"Well, you're both lucky then. I hope I don't need to remind you of how reckless you were. Mr. Snape, I must warn you not to speak to anyone of what you saw tonight."

Once Snape had nodded, (though he didn't seem happy about it,) Dumbledore continued. "Alright then. Mr. Snape, you may go to Hospital Wing," he raised his hand as Snape started to protest before finishing. "I know that you think you are uninjured. but I think it safest if Madam Pomfrey looks you over. Also, you have just had what I'd imagine to be a very traumatic experience, it'd be better if you rested there overnight."

Snape reluctantly got up and left the office, throwing a suspicious look at James before he went.

James watched him go, slightly apprehensive.

Sure enough the second Snape left, Dumbledore turned back to James, and began asking him more in depth about the finer details of the 'prank'. "Mr. Potter, I think you know what I'm going to ask."

James still remained stubbornly quiet, still refusing to tell on Sirius, even though he knew that Dumbledore probably knew the entire truth already.

Dumbledore sighed and pulled his half-moon spectacles off his nose to get a better look at James. "By your silence, I'll assume that you were not the one who gave Snape that little tidbit of information. I'm fairly sure that it was not Mr. Pettigrew either, and also, Mr. Lupin is aware enough of his condition not to deliberately put someone in the position to get harmed, I think, so that leaves Mr. Black."

Again, James refused to answer.

Once again, Dumbledore sighed. "You are dismissed Mr. Potter. It's probably best if you too headed down to the Hospital Wing."

James slunk out of the headmaster's office. Even though he hadn't said anything to incriminate Sirius, he couldn't help but feel as though he had betrayed his best friend.

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><p><strong>AN Okay, first, I was planning to add another scene to this chapter in my mind, but that will have to wait for next chapter! (Sorry, this chapter was already 2,400 words and I'm running late, so sorry!)**

**I really enjoyed the writing of this chapter, but I'd love to hear what you think of it. I'm going to New York for a couple of days, so that may screw up my writing schedule, so sorry if it's a while, I'll try to update soon! **

**I just want to take this chance to thank all of the reviewers, followers, and people who put this story on alert. I would write everyone out, but I really am running late with this update, so I'll just tell you guys that I love you all and you really are amazing and you're why I write! Love you!**

**P.S Just wanted to say, it was really strange to write all those 'Mr. Snapes' it just sounded so awkward! Sorry about wasting your time with my ramblings. Bye until next update! Please review!**


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N Here's chapter 18! I don't have much to say, aside from apologizing for any misspelled words in recent chapters (for some reason fan fiction wasn't saving my changes or something). I hope you like this chapter. Please don't kill me over what happens! Thanks for any reviewers and readers in general. **

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><p>Lily watched Professor McGonagall lead James and Severus away. She had an inexplicable urge to follow them, but she contained it and instead, continued patrolling the empty hallways.<p>

Finally, her shift was over. She trudged wearily to Gryffindor Tower. After a few minutes of arguing with the portrait of the fat lady, (in her tired state she had momentarily forgotten the password) she finally came up with the word 'fizzlewicks' and the painting swung open to reveal the warmly lit common room.

Since it was so late, the common room was mostly empty. The only remaining students were a group of fifth years cramming for whatever O.W.L.S. they still had to take, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. Lily wasn't surprised in the least to see them sitting alertly at a table, without a book in sight. It only made sense that all the Marauders were in on whatever the hell James and Snape were doing that night. Without hesitation, Lily walked straight to their table and sat down. Neither one spoke to her or even made eye contact with her. After a few moments of the awkward silence Lily asked, "Do either of you want to tell me what's going on with James?"

If it was possible, the two boys avoided her eyes even more.

She growled in frustration. What was going on? Didn't they trust her? She didn't even want to be here! She wanted to be in her cosy four poster bed, snuggled up in warm covers pulled up to her chin, but some voice inside her head insisted on knowing what was going on with James before it would let her sleep, so she was stuck here, interrogating these two morons who refused to tell her anything! She rubbed her temples, trying to calm down. Freaking out wouldn't help her at all. After a few deep breaths she tried once again to get Sirius or Peter to divulge any information regarding James. "He and Snape were fighting in the Great Hall," she said, carefully looking for any reaction from the boys.

Peter looked up at her words, his expression hopeful. "So they're alright, then? Moony didn't-" he cut off as Sirius punched him under the table.

Lily's eyes narrowed. She knew all too well Remus' nickname. "What do you mean? Remus didn't do what?"

"Nothing," Sirius answered quickly. Too quickly.

Lily's eyes became even smaller slits. She paused before answering to look Sirius up and down. He shivered self-consciously under her intense glare. "Fine. If you won't tell me, I'll figure it out on my own!" Lily slammed her hands down on the table, startling the students studying nearby. She cast one last withering glance at the pair of boys before walking away.

After a brief moment of uncertainty, Lily decided to head up to the girl's dormitory. _I'll figure it out tomorrow_, she thought as a yawn burst from her mouth.

Even though Lily was utterly exhausted, she had a hard time drifting to sleep. Just when her mind would almost be empty enough to touch rest, some annoying worry about that idiot Potter would pop into her mind. _I hope he's alright_, she thought before she could stop herself. She groaned and rolled onto her side, covering her ears with her pillow as if that could somehow drown out the unwanted anxiety. It didn't work. _If he wants to do Merlin knows what, and get dragged off to the headmaster's office, why should I worry, when he obviously doesn't worry about himself?_ Reason didn't word either. Finally, after hours of tossing and turning, the exhaustion won out, and blessed sleep found Lily.

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><p>The next morning, she woke to sunshine leaking in from the window, and a feeling of being well-rested. After the night before and her inability to fall asleep, the feeling was a pleasant surprise. She got up, yawned, and stretched leisurely. Glancing around, she saw that all the other girls were still asleep. Lily sat back down on her bed wondering what to do. She didn't have a watch on, but she assumed that if she was the only one up in the dormitory, it was probably too early to find out what James and Snape were doing the previous night. <em>Maybe I should go visit Remus in the Hospital wing<em>, She thought, glad for something to do. _He's probably still asleep, but I can at least make sure _he's_ alright_.

So, Lily quietly changed into her robes and slipped on shoes, careful not to disturb any of the sleepers around her. She silently made her way to the stairs.

The common room was also empty. Lily was slightly disappointed. _I guess I was hoping to see James sitting there_. She sighed. This constant worry was getting old quickly. Blocking out all thoughts, Lily continued to the Hospital wing.

A few students were, like her, wandering the halls, but for the most part, the castle appeared to be asleep, and the same seemed to be true for the Hospital wing. Even Madam Pomfrey was no where in sight.

Like usual, the vast majority of the white beds were unused, but about five had people in them. Lily cautiously approached the occupied beds, trying again to be silent. Despite her best efforts, someone sat up as she tiptoed by their bed.

"Lily?" the person asked groggily.

Lily turned towards the voice, surprised. Of course, she was even more surprised when she saw who had spoken. "Sev?" She asked, once again forgetting to use his last name. "What happened? Are you alright?"

Snape was still only half awake. "Lily?" he asked again, sounding confused. "What... what're you doing here?" he asked, his voice slurred.

Lily ran up to the side of the bed, her eyes frantically checking him for any visible injuries. "Are you alright?" She asked again.

"Lily," he said yet again, his voice getting louder. He seemed to waking up. "Lily, I was right! Lu-" he cut off suddenly, looking around the Hospital wing as if searching for someone. "Where is he?" Snape asked. "I know he came here after me last night!"

"Who?" Lily asked.

"Potter!" Snape answered savagely.

Lily flinched as he practically shouted. Amazingly, no one around them woke up. Lily looked over at the bed next to Snape's, and indeed, there was James. His messy black hair was just visible over the tops of the sheets that were nearly pulled over his head. "What's going on?" Lily asked. "You guys aren't hurt, are you?"

Snape ignored her questions and kept looking for James. He struggled into a higher sitting position.

Without thinking, Lily shifted blocking James from Snape's view, and forcing him to focus on her. "Tell me what happened last night!" Why are you and James in the hospital wing?" She asked in a voice that told Snape that he had better answer.

Snape turned his head and looked into Lily's face. "I was right."

"What?" Lily asked, confused.

"Lupin's a werewolf!"

Lily stumbled back in surprise. "Wh-what?"

She was shocked that he knew the truth, but Snape clearly took her wide eyes and open mouth to mean she was surprised with the information itself. "I told you! I knew something strange was going on! I-"

"How do you know Remus is a werewolf?" Lily asked, interrupting his gloating.

Snape's face darkened. "It was them."

"Who?" Lily asked. She was getting really tired of having to ask Snape so many questions. Why did he have to be so damn cryptic? Why couldn't he just say the names the first time?

"Black, Potter, and the rest of the Marauders!"

_What's going on?_ She wondered. "They told you that Remus is a werewolf?" she asked coldly.

Snape looked away. "Well they didn't tell me, exactly."

Lily let out a sigh of relief. "Then what happened?"

"They tried to kill me." He said. His voice was barely a whisper, as he he didn't really believe what he was saying. "They tried to kill me!" He said again, louder.

"What? That's ridiculous!" Lily scoffed, yet some part of her was compelled to believe Snape._ No they would never do something like that! James wouldn't_, she told herself fiercely, but her mind was pulled back to not so long ago, when James would harass Snape. How many times had the school's hero tortured Snape? Too many to count. _No, he's changed_, she thought desperately, but some logical part of her mind asked, _Do people really change? Can people really change? But... he wouldn't!_ The first part of her screamed in her head. _Why not? He's proved again and again that he hates Severus, and he's willing to show it!_ It said, again making sense, but Lily was determined to fight it._ But would he try to kill Snape?_ The question filled Lily. A second ago, she would have answered without any hesitation, but now she wasn't so sure. He wouldn't! She sat down heavily in the chair next to Snape's bed. "What happened?" She asked emotionlessly.

Snape looked at her, concerned, but then launched into his story. He paused at the point where James came in, wording it carefully, trying to show James in the worst light possible. Of course, James' whole role in the story was less than incriminating, but at least Snape could make him seem less like a hero. "When I looked inside, there was a huge wolf glaring at me, so I turned around and started to run, but I ran into Potter. I don't know what he was doing there, coming to check on their prank I'd expect, but when he saw the werewolf, he started to run too. For some reason, it didn't chase us. We made it back to the castle, and well you know the rest."

Lily stared straight in front of her. She still couldn't believe that James had had anything to do with this, but what she had seen only confirmed Snape's story. "Then how'd you wind up in the hospital wing? Remus- the wolf didn't bite you did he?" Lily asked fearfully.

"Course not. Dumbledore just told us to spend the night here. I think it was so no one wondered why were getting into bed late. He's trying to protect that _thing_! Can you believe it?"

A new worry entered Lily's mind. "You're not going to tell anyone about this are you?" She asked.

"Of course I am! Everyone has a right to know that they're going to school with a monster!"

"No, Sev! You can't!" Lily begged. "Please..."

Snape looked at her for a moment, then sighed. "Fine. Does this mean that you forgive me?" He asked hopefully.

Lily didn't respond just looked down at her hands, mind already back to James.

Snape seemed to know what she was thinking. "They knew that I could be killed, but they did it anyway," he said softly.

Lily turned her head to look at James' sleeping form. He looked so peaceful and happy. There was no way... was there?

Snape reached out and touched her arm. "I'm sorry, Lils."

Lily shied away from his touch. Her eyes were prickling. She had to go. There was no way she was going to cry in front of Snape. She stood up and left.

Snape watched her go, but did nothing to stop her.

Once outside the Hospital wing, she leaned against the wall and let the tears run silently down her cheeks. She had to ask someone else, anyone. Anyone who would tell her that James would never do something like that, but she couldn't ask him. She couldn't face him. She imagined that conversation in her mind._ Hi James! So, I think that you tried to kill my ex-best friend, could you prove me wrong, please?_ No. She would have to ask someone else.

Slowly, she walked back to Gryffindor Tower, wiping tears off her face as she went.

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><p><strong>AN Did you like it? Did you hate it? PLease tell me! Please please please please review!**

**Special thanks to dwarfperson who reviews almost every chapter! Thank you so much. Also, thanks to anyone else who has reviewed this story at all! You guys are soooo nice and somehow put up with all of my mistakes! I love you all!**

**P.S. It undid all the italics for thoughts, but I went back through and changed them back, but if I missed one, I'm sorry for any confusion that it might have caused.**


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N Thanks to all of the reviewers! Once again, especially dwarfperson, I love you! And in answer to your question, don't worry, Snape promised Lily and Dumbledore that he won't tell, so he won't. Wow it's only been like four days! (okay so since I was late last time I'm just technically back on schedule, but it's good for me!) Well, it's summer so hopefully my posts will be better! So, I don't really have anything else to say, except for, enjoy!  
><strong>

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><p>Lily didn't know what to do, or what to believe. Was Snape telling the truth? There was something about the way his eyes looked when he told her that the Marauder's tried to kill him. The sheer honesty in them scared her. Did he fake that? Could he somehow have faked that? She had no idea. Everything in her heart and soul told her that there was no way that James could do something like that, but the rational part of her had an annoying habit of arguing. It kept telling her to examine every angle and look at it objectively. <em>Maybe I don't want to be objective! Maybe I want to be biased, and believe in James! <em>She thought angrily, her eyes prickling, the telltale sign of the salty tears that were sure to follow. _Not again!_ Lily begged, but it was too late; her cheeks were already wet. Trails of water tattooed her face, a screen of her pain. There was nothing liberating about letting her emotions out, instead they sunk her deeper into the pit that the events of the day had dug.

Lily sucked in a few shaky but calming breaths, and to her relief, they brought the tears to halt. One last droplet slid along her cheek. It hovered a second, balancing on the bottom of her chin, but eventually it fell and was lost in the blankets on her bed. Now her mind was clear. She could think again.

She was curled into the fetal position on her bed in the girl's dormitory. She had been there for about half an hour, trying to figure out what was going on. She was no closer to figuring anything out than she was thirty minutes ago. _This is ridiculous! Obviously I'm not going to get anything done by sitting here. If I don't want to ask James about this, I can still ask the rest of the Marauders. _With new determination on her face, Lily raked the back of her hand across her cheek, drying the watery streaks. She stood up, and looked around.

Everyone else in the dormitory was still asleep. It surprised Lily that this constant could still be here. In the last hour her world had been turned on it's head, everything she thought she knew washed away, but here, Alice and the others had barely moved a muscle. Nothing had changed for them. Lily envied them with her entire being.

For the second time that morning, she headed down the stairs. The common room wasn't as empty as it had been half an hour ago, but still, only a few students could be found sitting at the tables. Lily marched straight up to a second or third year who was scrambling to complete an essay that was most likely due in a few hours. "Hey. Have you seen Sirius Black come through here at all?" She asked.

The boy looked up, surprised to say to say the least. "I- I just got up..." he said hesitantly.

Lily rolled her eyes. She was in somewhat of a hurry, and this boy wasn't helping. "So, have you seen him in the time you've been up?" she asked in a patronizing tone that she would probably feel bad about later, but for now she really didn't give a damn.

The boy spluttered for a second. "Um... No. I haven't seen him."

Lily nodded. "Thanks," she said curtly, walked away, and plopped herself in chair that was situated right in front of the staircase of the boys' dormitory.

Minute after minute passed, and Lily never moved except for the tapping of her foot in impatience. After a while she realized that Sirius could have gone down to the Hospital wing, and she may have missed him. _Well, I've invested this much time waiting here, I may as well invest a little more. _Lily sighed and checked the watch she had strapped on after her return from the visit to the Hospital wing. _I still have an hour before classes start. I guess I can wait that long. If he doesn't show up before then, I'll just find him later._ Lily pushed away the thoughts that if she didn't find Sirius now, she would probably have to face James with him. She shuddered. Luck was on her side however, because just as she thought this, Sirius and Peter came down the stairs. They both looked extremely tired. It was no surprise. Lily wondered how long they had stayed up waiting for James the night before. As soon as they reached the common room, Lily ran up to meet them. "Sirius, I need to talk to you!"

They both turned towards her, surprised. "Lily... what d'ya want?" Sirius asked, sleep heavy in his voice.

"I need to talk to you!" Lily repeated, grabbing his arm and dragging him away from Peter.

Peter watched them go, confused. He seemed to hesitate, wondering whether he should follow them.

Sirius looked back over his shoulder as Lily dragged him away. He shrugged. He had no idea what Lily wanted any more than Peter did.

Lily didn't notice any of this. She just wanted to ask Sirius about what happened. Once they were in a fairly private alcove, Lily began to speak hurriedly. "Tell me what happened with Snape yesterday! Did you tell him where to find Remus in his werewolf form?"

Sirius' shoulders slumped, and he leaned against the wall. "So, you know. Did James tell you?"

Lily jerked back. She had been sure that he was going to deny it, going to defend himself, something! It seemed... it seemed like Snape had been telling the truth... "So... it's true then?"

Sirius' eyebrows knitted together. "What do you mean? Is what true? Who told you? Didn't James..."

"It was Snape." Lily answered, she was leaning against the wall just as heavily as Sirius was, now. It felt as though all the strength in her vanished. It was true. Snape had been telling the truth. James... James had...

Almost to her relief, Sirius interrupted her thoughts. "You talked to Snape? Where is he? What happened? Is James-"

"He's in the Hospital wing. James is with him." Lily cut him off. She walked away. She didn't want to hear more. She couldn't.

"Wait, Lily!" Sirius called after her, but she ignored him and kept walking.

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><p>James opened his eyes, and for a second, he couldn't remember where he was, then it came to him. The tunnel, the wolf, the Hospital wing, all of it. He struggled into a seated position, and looked around. To his relief, he saw Remus asleep in a bed across the aisle. So he was fine. Where was Snape? He looked to left, and almost jumped out of his skin. There was Snape, staring at James, with a smirk scrawled on his face. It more than a little bit creepy. "What the hell are you looking at?" James asked irritably.<p>

"You," Snape answered, his smirk widening.

"What's got you so happy? You'd think that a run in with a werewolf would subdue him a little, but, no!" James said the last part to himself.

"I'm happy because at least one good thing came out of your stupid prank," Snape said.

This got James' attention. He decided not to argue with Snape about the fact that it wasn't a prank, and just let it go. "What do you mean?" He asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Lily finally realized the real you," Snape stated, a smug look on his face.

James froze. "What?"

"Well, she came in here earlier, and I told her what happened."

"What did you tell her?" James asked, his voice shaking, whether from rage or apprehension, even he didn't know.

"The truth," Snape answered simply.

"What truth? Your truth or my truth?"

"The truth that you and your 'friends' tried to kill me for a laugh!"

"What the hell? Is that what you think happened?" Now his voice shook with rage for sure. "That's not what happened at all!"

"Yeah right! You tried to get werewolf to eat me!"

"I saved your sorry life!" James yelled.

"Yeah... I might have left that part out of my story. Sorry 'mate'. It completely slipped my mind."

James wasn't listening anymore. He jumped out of bed. He had to find Lily.

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><p>Lily couldn't face him. She couldn't. It wasn't anger exactly that filled her, it was hurt. Lily felt as though he had betrayed her. She had believed him. She had honestly thought that he had changed, that he was a better person than he used to be. Then this. She knew that she should feel anger, but she just couldn't bring herself to. She was an shell. It was like someone had scooped out her insides and filled her body with this pain. There was no room for emotions as trivial as anger, just this overwhelming hurt. Anger would have been better, easier to manage. She wished that she could hate this boy who broke her heart before she was convinced she was in love with him, but she couldn't.<p>

Lily had managed to avoid James all day long, or when she couldn't get out of seeing him, she made sure that at least they were never alone together. Unfortunately for her, that record broke after dinner. She was hurrying to Gryffindor Tower when he caught her.

"Lily!" James called running over to her.

Upon hearing his voice, Lily picked up her pace. She couldn't face him. She couldn't. She repeated it over and over to herself, but it was pointless, because he had already caught her. There was no avoiding it now. That didn't mean that she wasn't going to try, though. "I don't want to talk to you," she said, still walking, refusing to face him.

"Lily, please! Please, let me tell you what happened!"

Suddenly she couldn't take it anymore. The pain, the betrayal, him. She cracked. "I already know what happened!" She yelled so loud that he took a step back.

"Lily-" he said hesitantly, unsure of himself now.

"Snape told me what happened! He told me what you did! He told me-" her voice broke and she couldn't continue.

James didn't say anything to her. Instead, he stared at his shoes.

Lily watched him, tears brimming yet again. She turned away before he could see them. She wouldn't let him see how much he had hurt her.

"Lily, please," James said quietly.

"What do you want from me James? I tried, I really tried. For a while I thought you were a good guy. People tried to tell me otherwise, but I didn't listen. I thought that maybe the amazing James Potter actually cared about something besides himself. Look at how wrong I was." She turned and walked away, tears silently streaming down her cheeks.

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><p>"What happened?" Sirius asked the second James slumped into their dormitory.<p>

"Well, she hates me," James responded bitterly.

"Did you tell her what really happened?" Sirius asked.

"I tried, but then, what really happened? How could I tell her and not seem like a git?" he asked.

"What about the part when you saved Snape's life?" Sirius asked sarcastically. "That seems very git-like to me."

"She wouldn't have believed me."

"I think she would have."

"You didn't hear her."

"_You_ should give Lily more credit. I think that she would have believed you."

"I don't know what I was supposed to say. Nothing would have come out right. It would just seem like I was trying to defend myself. It seem like I was just an arrogant pig-headed toerag."

Sirius smiled at the insult that Lily used to have for James. "But wouldn't all of that have been better than not defending yourself at all?" he asked quietly.

"I don't know! I don't know, okay!" James shouted, his voice cracked, and slumped to the floor, sliding down the wall, and putting his face in his hands. "I don't know what I could have done." He said so quietly Sirius had to strain to hear it.

Sirius went over to his friend, and patted his back awkwardly. He ignored the tears that poured down James' cheeks.

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><p>The last few weeks at school were hard for Lily, too much of her time was spent in solitude, crying. As the school year ended, she found that for the first time she was looking forward to leaving. Months without James sounded pretty good, yet as she watched the castle disappearing into mist as the train chugged away, she found herself longing for it. Longing for those few happy weeks with James. <em>It's over now.<em> She thought softly, and for the first time, she was able to hold in the tears that rose to her eyes.

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><p><strong>AN Did you like? Please tell me! Review review review!**


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N I apologize for the extreme shortness of this chapter and it's lateness. I have a ton of excuses though! I'll list them and you can choose your favorite! :) 1. My flashdrive got massacred. (In case anyone's wondering, the culprit was the washing machine) 2. There was a power outage. 3. I was very busy handling matters of the upmost importance. Okay, the last one was a lie, but I realized two excuses was not enough to be labeled as a ton so I though I had better make some up. Anyway sorry about how short it is. For some reason I found this chapter almost impossible to write. I have no idea why. Ooooh, my extremely long author's not is making it look like this chapter had more words! Yay!**

For Lily, the summer seemed hard and never-ending. She spent most of the time holed up in her room, writing to the few friends that she had left at Hogwarts and studying. If anybody had asked her why, she would have answered that it was because Petunia was even more unbearable. This was true, (her continued exposure to her horrid boyfriend made it almost physically painful for Lily to be in the same room as her) but it wasn't the stem of Lily's self-induced exile. No, that would be James Potter. Even after months, the wound was still as raw as it had been the first day. True, she had gotten better at holding in her tears and masking her pain, but on the inside she felt the same.

At first, her parents tried to talk to her and figure at what it was making her so obviously depressed, but after the second week or so, they gave up, deciding that if she wanted to be alone to let her, and not to try and fathom the inner workings of a teenage girl's mind especially if she happened to be a witch. _Magic is funny that way_, Lily thought. _It's supposed to make everyone's life simpler, but in all honesty it just complicates things and makes them more confusing._

The letter that named her head girl improved her mood somewhat, even if she had been sort of expecting it. It wasn't that she was narcissistic or anything, it was just that there were really only four choices for the position (technically you didn't have to be a prefect to be named a head, but Lily had never heard of someone who wasn't getting the title.) and she was fairly sure that all her teachers liked her and stuff, so it wasn't a shock to her at all. Despite this, she was proud to have earned it, and grateful to Professor Dumbledore. Especially in climates like that of the current wizarding world, muggle-borns accepted all the credentials they could get.

Of course, since receiving the letter, a portion of Lily's thoughts were occupied with wondering who the head boy was. She liked the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw male prefects alright, she didn't know them that well, but she guessed that she wouldn't mind spending as much time with them as the heads spent together. Of course, Remus was the Gryffindor prefect. After the whole fiasco at the end of the year, Lily was a little hesitant of him. Still, if she were to repair her friendship with one of the Marauders it would most likely be him. Truthfully, she almost hoped it was Remus. He would make a good head, (assuming he quit pranking with James and Sirius, though he was never really that into all of their hi-jinx.) and, of course, Lily knew him and liked him. _What if the head boy is the Slytherin prefect?_ Lily thought worriedly. That would be just about the worst possible situation.

Shortly after she received the letter, it was time to go to King's Cross station and catch the Hogwarts express. Lily was thankful that the summer had finally ended, though she was nervous about going back. She was going to be head girl, and she would, of course, have to see James. With these thoughts bouncing around her head, she regretfully waved good bye to her parents, (Petunia had refused to come) and continued towards platforms nine and ten.

Trying her hardest to forget her worries, Lily braced herself, and ran towards the barrier that separated the platforms. Just as she was about crash, she squeezed her eyes shut; preparing for the impact despite herself. Instead of slamming into the barrier, she slid easily through through it, and came out in the bustling platform nine and three quarters.

She had managed to reach the platform before it was horribly crowded, but still it was difficult to make her way up to the train, what with all the carts, and occasionally exploding trunks. (Technically, only one trunk exploded, but still) By the time she finally reached the train, it was almost 11:00.

Lily stopped herself as she was heading towards the prefects car, realizing with a jolt that as a head she would share one with the head boy. Again she hoped that the head boy wasn't a Slytherin.

She hesitantly headed towards her car, still wishing that she knew who the head boy was. She got on. The car was small; there was just one compartment. Uncertainly, she reached for the door. This was it, the moment of truth. Who was head boy?

* * *

><p>James sat worriedly in the compartment reserved for the heads. He fiddled nervously with the hem of his shirt. He knew that she was coming. Of course Lily would have been named head girl, it only made. Now him being named head boy, that was a shock if he ever saw one. His parents had been pleased, of course. Sirius was convinced that it was a prank that someone had somehow been able pull off.<p>

James remembered them all sitting at the table in their kitchen, examining the letter. Sirius had monopolized it, preforming spell after spell to prove that it was a forgery. James now looked at the badge that had come with the letter. He had yet to pin it on. Truthfully he was almost afraid to. None of this seemed real. He was scared that it would, he didn't know, dissolve or something. It just seemed so insanely impossible for him to be named head boy. It was like some sort of lame ironic joke. After years and years of tormenting teachers and other students, they name him as the head boy? Had someone gone mad? That was the only logical explanation.

The sound of the compartment door opening pulled James out of his thoughts. Everything that he had been planning to say to Lily went straight out of his mind. He couldn't think at all, besides a false hope that maybe, just maybe, some other girl would be the one opening that door. He couldn't believe that even as he told himself. Besides, if he was honest, he didn't want to be head boy at all if Lily wasn't the head girl.

The door slipped open at what seemed like an impossibly slow pace. For the few nano seconds it actually took to open the door, James felt like he had lived a lifetime, of course the second it was open, reality caught up and time was suddenly moving at an all too real pace.

There she was. Of course it was her. Even though they had chosen the wrong head boy, at least they had gotten head girl right.

As Lily's eyes roamed the compartment, her face was like one in an old cartoon; James could see each emotion clearly as they crossed her face. First what seemed like a mild curiosity with a little nerves thrown in. Then surprise which quickly morphed into confusion. The confusion lasted a long time, as both Lily and James just stared at each other, unmoving. Finally, the look on her face turned into some sort of incredulous anger.

"James? What the hell are you doing here?" She asked in a bellowing voice.

James winced at her tone, but looking on the bright side, he realized that she had called him James. At least she hadn't gone back to Potter. That was a good sign, right? Maybe it meant that she had forgiven him for what happened at the end of the previous year. That would certainly would make it more pleasant to be head boy and girl together. "Well, I'm head boy..." he said, in a very unconvincing voice answering her question.

Lily looked around widely. James supposed that she was looking for the real head boy gagged and tied up in a corner. It was a valid concern. "Is this a joke or something?" She asked, and again James winced.

"Since no angry guy has come to take my place, I'm fairly certain that it isn't." James said, in a slightly irritated tone. It was okay for him to wonder if it was a joke, but if she did, it was just insulting, even if was the most likely explanation for the situation.

Now, the look on Lily's face now could only be described as horror. "B-but how? You're not even a prefect!" She cried.

"Yeah, I noticed." James said sarcastically. This was not going well. At all. He tried to end the awkward conversation by turning away from her and staring out the window.

Lily though, refused to let it go. "Professor Dumbledore named you head boy?" She asked, as though she was still trying to wrap her head around it. "For what possible reason?"

"Dunno. Maybe he's finally lost it." James suggested, trying to make her laugh. The joke backfired on him, however, and she just glared.

"I can't believe this!" She said, putting her hand to her head. "This isn't happening."

"Here's my badge," James said sourly, passing it over to her as proof.

She grabbed it out of his hand and proceeded to examine it. Her face fell. "It does look like a real badge..."

James rolled his eyes and was about comment on her observation, but suddenly the train started to roll out of the station.

Unfortunately for Lily, she hadn't sat down, or even thought to hold onto something, so she was thrown off balance and stumbled... into James' arms.

It really was just luck that he had managed to catch her. James wasn't complaining though. He had Lily in his arms... he was head boy... life was good. Of course, as soon as Lily realized what had happened, she blushed furiously and scrambled out of his arms and into the seat opposite his. "Careful, Lils," James said with a smirk, using her nickname. There was no way he was letting this one go.

Lily blushed again, and turned her head towards the window and refused to talk.

Despite this, James was fairly certain that she muttered, "This is going to be a long ride," under her breath.

**A/N Well, even if it was short, I guess that it does seem like that should be the end of the chapter. **

**Even if they can't see it themselves, the world thinks that Lily and James are perfect for each other! (Okay I'm sure that like thirty LilyxSnape people now want to murder me, but whatever.) I don't know if I've ever said which couple I like more, but it's Lily and James. (I'm hoping that most people gathered that from the fact the fact that this is a Lily and James fanfic, but I figured I should say it.) I've never really liked Snape, but I can see why people do. Okay I'm going to stop writing this strange author's note and just beg people to review! Please please please please review!**

**Oh, and thanks to all the reviews I got on the last chapter, you guys were soooooo nice!**


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N I know its been forever but I have been uber busy. Besides all of that busyness (is that a word?) I really have no excuse for this chapter being this late... Sorry to everyone who was waiting. (If no one was actually waiting I'll just pretend to make myself feel better) Anyway, chapter 21 chock full of JamesxLily goodness. (Not really all that true actually)**

* * *

><p>To Lily's overwhelming relief, the rest of the train ride passed without any more embarrassing events. Truthfully, it went better than she thought was possible. To her surprise, James had actually left her alone for most of the trip. True, in the beginning he had tried to start a conversation, but when he had seen that she was resolutely ignoring him, he had given up and let her sit in silence.<p>

Of course, awkwardness had ensued again when they had had to address the rest of the prefects. Luckily for him, James had done the smart thing: shut up and let her run things. In fact, now that she thought about it, Lily didn't think that James had said a single word the entire meeting and for that she was thankful. By their expressions all the prefects hated him. They were subtle about it, but Lily caught some of the annoyed glances they threw at him. It was obvious that they didn't think that he deserved to be head boy, that he had probably only gotten the position because of his parent's friendship with Dumbledore. The seventh year boys who had been passed up for the position seemed to be the most irritated, which was far from surprising. Yep, they all hated him. (Except for a few younger girls who seemed quite infatuated with him)

Despite his fairly good behavior on the train, Lily was dreading having to coordinate all the duties of the heads with James. The mere thought of it made her want to break down in tears. How in the world did Professor Dumbledore expect her to get anything done when she would have to work with him? It seemed like the universe was laughing at her. First it had made her fall in love with the boy she hated and know she would have to spend about fifty percent of her seventh year at Hogwarts with him. It was like she was stuck in some bad romance novel. Well, if that was true she didn't think much of the plot.

Lily slumped against a wall as all these thoughts passed through her mind. It was like all her strength had suddenly vanished, and she could no longer support her own weight. All she wanted was to curl up into a ball and ignore the world around her. _Pull yourself together!_ She thought angrily to herself, but she still leaned against the wall. _Come on! You're head girl! You can make it through this!_ Even if she didn't really believe the words she told herself, they filled her with enough strength to push away from the wall and stand on her own.

It was funny; once she was standing, her situation didn't seem so bad. In fact, it seemed downright petty. Nothing had changed, she was still in love with James, and he was still a git, but suddenly it didn't feel so bad. With everything going on in the world, what with Voldemort rising and all the recent deaths and disappearances, it seemed almost wrong for her to worry so much about a relationship.

_Well, I guess that's decided,_ she thought.

Now with all of that out of the way, she could solely focus on getting together all the things she would need for the prefect meeting tonight. She had to have all the patrolling schedules for the next month arranged. Usually the head boy and girl were supposed to come up with them on the train, but the shock of finding out James was head boy had made her completely forget. So now, she had to go hunt around the entire school trying to find him so they could do a quick version.

_Well this year is starting out magnificently,_ Lily thought bitterly.

* * *

><p>James stood nervously by the door that led into the headmaster's office. <em>This has got to be a new record I've been at Hogwarts for about three hours and I'm already at the Professor Dumbledore's office. <em>He thought to himself. _Well, no, there was that time in fourth year. I guess that I was back for about two hours before me and Sirius got sent here. _James grinned at the thought, but too soon it vanished, replaced by a feeling of foreboding. At least then they knew full well why they were there. Now, James had no idea why he was standing here. Professor McGonagall had simply told him that the headmaster wished to see him, not explaining why. Then, she had given the Gargoyle the password, and told him to wait by the door.

_Maybe Dumbledore wants to tell me that this whole head boy thing is a mistake. They meant to give it to someone else and somehow it got sent to me… with my name on it… _It seemed highly unlikely, but it would come as a relief. James had no idea what he was supposed to do as head boy. To be perfectly honest, he wasn't even sure about all of their responsibilities. He had never bothered to learn them, there had never been a reason. He had never even been in the running… Well if there was one thing he was sure of, whatever duties he was supposed to preform he would be completely unprepared for them. The meeting on the train had proved that. He was just damn lucky that Lily at least seemed to know what she was doing.

His thoughts were interrupted as the door swung open, revealing the headmaster sitting at his desk. He looked up at James. "Ah, Mr. Potter. Come in, come in."

James stepped hesitantly into the office.

With a wave of his hand, Dumbledore made the door close.

James gulped and sat down in the seat across the desk, without waiting for an invitation. He knew the procedures for a meeting with Dumbledore all too well.

"You're probably wondering why you're here," Dumbledore looked James over with his piercing blue eyes, and sighed. "At least I hope you're wonder why you're here. No pranks this early in the year, I hope."

"No sir," James said, looking down.

"Good… good… I'll hold you to that… Lemon drop?"

James smiled; some things never changed.

"Now, Mr. Potter, I imagine that you got a bit of a surprise over the summer. Am I correct?"

"Yes," James said cautiously. Was Dumbledore about to tell him that it had all been a mistake?

"You're no doubt wondering why I picked you to be head boy."

James could only nod, words got stuck in his throat, and he found he couldn't speak.

Dumbledore sighed again. "James," he said.

James looked up, surprised that Dumbledore had used his first name.

"You're a leader in this school.

The surprised expression on James' face morphed into one of shock and confusion. "Me, sir? A leader? I don't think so…" he said honestly.

"You may not see it, but I can tell. Surely you know that they look up to you."

Well yeah, because I'm good at Quidditch and stuff, but that doesn't mean I'm a leader."

"It's a lot more than just your skill on the Quidditch field that draws people to you, James. They're attracted to your personality, they want to listen to you. And you thrive on their attention. I am convinced that you are the best choice for head boy." Dumbledore held up his head as James started to protest again. "Especially now, the school needs a strong leader, and that James, is you."

"But sir!" James cried. He couldn't think of anything to say, it was just so obvious to him that he was a bad choice. Didn't Dumbledore see it?

"James, I realize that you aren't the best role model, and you aren't exactly one for responsibly, but I believe that you want to do what's right. You want to help others. You proved that when you saved Mr. Snape's life last year. I'm sure that Miss Evans will help you with the rest."

James just stared at the headmaster. Was he crazy? Last year, that had been a fluke, random. How could Dumbledore expect him to do this?

Dumbledore took off his glasses and wiped them on the sleeve of his robe. Seeming to read James' mind he said, "Sometimes a person just needs a little push in the right direction. This is your push, Mr. Potter. Use it as you like. I just ask you to bear in mind that this is an opportunity for you to really help people."

James swallowed, but nodded.

Dumbledore looked at him and said. "Then you can go."

James stood up woodenly and stiffly turned towards the door. It seemed like Dumbledore had just dropped the weight of the world on his shoulders, but what could he do?

"Wait, one last thing, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore said.

James turned back.

"I noticed that you aren't wearing your head badge," he said, pointing to the empty place on James' chest where the badge should have been pinned.

"Oh," James said, fumbling for it in his pockets. He had never put it on, it just felt so wrong. Despite this, he held the badge out so Dumbledore could see it. He then hurriedly pinned it on his chest, stabbing himself in the process. "There."

Dumbledore smiled. "Thank you. Now may go."

James nodded, and left.

* * *

><p>"So how did it go?" Sirius asked James as soon as he returned to the Gryffindor common room. "Did Professor Dumbledore say it was a mistake?" Sirius laughed.<p>

James half-heartedly threw a book laying on the table next to him at Sirius.

Sirius caught it easily. "Is that a yes?"

James sighed and sank into an armchair. "No, worse. He said that he chose me on purpose. Apparently Professor Dumbledore thinks I'm 'leader'."

Sirius stared at him for a second, mouth hanging open. "Well then, that makes it official. Dumbledore has gone mad. We all knew it was bound to happen someday."

James chuckled. "That's what I said."

Remus looked at James for a second. "I think Dumbledore's right, James."

Both Sirius and James turned to stare. "Really?" James asked.

"Yeah," Peter piped up.

"Are you guys serious?" Sirius asked.

"Sure. You just don't realize it, because you're a leader too." Remus stated turning back to his book, seeming thoroughly uninterested in the conversation.

Sirius' mouth dropped even further down. "Wait, what?"

James started laughing. "Hear that, Sirius? We're leaders!"

Remus looked up again and sighed, closing his book and put his full attention on the two boys next to him. "You two are idiots. Don't you know how popular you two are?"

"Well, yeah," Sirius and James said together. "But-"

"The people who go here aren't stupid. They don't like you two just because you're good looking, or good at Quidditch, or even because of all the pranks. Sure that's some of it, but an even bigger part is just you."

"You sound like Dumbledore," James laughed, but inside he wondered if what Remus said was true. It was much easier to brush off all this leader talk if Dumbledore was the only one talking about it, he always saw the best in people, but Remus, and apparently even Peter had picked up on it as well.

Sirius, like James, laughed it off, but James could see that he was just as bothered by what Remus had said.

"Well it's almost nine, I guess we have to go," Remus said standing up, looking at James.

"Go? Where?" James asked, thoroughly confused.

"To the prefect meeting… It's run by the heads," Remus said slowly, trying to get some sign of recognition from James. He got nothing. Remus sighed. "Well come on. I'll explain about it on the way."

Still surprised, James let himself get dragged away.

"Bye, mate! I guess duty calls!" Sirius said, laughing and waving.

_Help me!_ James mouthed to his friend.

Unfortunately for James, Sirius just laughed again and turned away.

* * *

><p>"Wait a second Remus! I still don't know what the hell's going on!" James shouted as Remus dragged him around turns and staircases, leading him to wherever the heads were meeting.<p>

Remus sighed. "I told you. The meeting on the train was just preliminary. The heads still have to assign to schedules and patrols and all of those things."

"What the hell?" James asked. There was no way was serious. "Are you telling me that we have to arrange schedules and stuff? How come I'm the last to know about this?"

"Look, I don't really know what to tell you. I just know that at this meeting every year the head assign the prefects things. I've never been a head so I don't know when all that planning gets done."

James stared, horrified. "Why didn't anyone tell me about this? What am I going to do?"

"Dunno."

"Well I can't exactly go in there with nothing can I?" James asked.

"Well you're going to have to." Remus said.

"Can't you just tell them I'm ill or something?" James asked pleadingly.

Remus sighed. "James, the heads have to be there."

"Well they can't expect me to come if I'm ill!"

"Be a man and suck it up."

James glared at him. "Please?"

Remus rolled his eyes, but acquiesced. "Fine."

"Thank you!"

"But-"

"Dammit! There always has to be but!" James muttered.

"But," Remus said again, louder. "But if you don't go in there, you're going to have to face her wrath."

James didn't have to ask who he was talking about.

"If the story about what happened between you two on the train is anything to go by, then I'm pretty sure that she knows you're not ill."

James titled his head thoughtfully. He did have a pint. There was no way Lily would believe that story. "Dammit," he muttered. "The lesser of two evils, I guess."

Remus nodded grimly, and with no farther ado, they entered the classroom where the heads were meeting.

* * *

><p><strong>AN There you go! the exceedingly lame chapter 21. I know nothing really happened but whatever. Next chapter will be better. No matter what it was really fun to write. I love writing for Dumbledore, he's so awesome. **

**Oh, did anyone see how Lily insulted my plot there? Ohhh I'm so clever... And soooo bad at plots apparently even my characters picked up on it... Oh well what I do, besides beg you to review? So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!**


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